Pathways Newsletter

LDP has been a cornerstone of our programming since the 1990s, evolving into the most comprehensive leadership program in the conversation corps world. But what makes it so transformative? The answer lies in what we call Facilitative Leadership.

Spending time outside is life-changing, and outdoor service-learning opportunities like MCC’s build resilience, leadership, and a sense of purpose. But committing to a month-long outdoor program isn’t always realistic for teens juggling school, sports, jobs, and family responsibilities. That’s why we’re introducing more flexible Youth Expedition programming to make outdoor service more accessible than ever before.

What happens when a passion for nature meets a desire to make a difference? Read Matt's story of finding purpose and connection while serving as a field crew member this fall with MCC.

Hear from Nancy Birch, rancher of Three Bar Ranch, as she recounts collaborating with MCC to restore Buffalo Creek.

Meet our Director of Philanthropy, Aaron Jacobs! Aaron joined MCC mid-year, excited to help engage donors who are inspired by MCC’s work to ignite purpose in young people through conservation and connection.

This year, your support has fueled incredible achievements in conservation and community impact across Montana. From restoring wild landscapes to empowering future leaders, your contributions have made a lasting difference. Read on to celebrate the milestones you helped make possible in 2024!

Addressing the impacts of drought, climate change, invasive weeds and pests, increasing visitation, timber economics, and catastrophic wildfires, the Forest Service is facing historic resource management challenges. Yet, the agency is struggling to hire an invested and skilled workforce to tackle these needs. Enter MCC.

Meet Allison, an MCC alum from 2013. Now, as the Operations Director for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, she leads their community engagement efforts and operations! She is passionate about helping people connect with the incredible Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in NW Montana.

After the July storm in Missoula, the clean-up was monumental. Luckily, our MCC Missoula office jumped into action. Read more about our efforts to clean-up after the storm and help residents in need.

As I enter into the last month of MCC’s 2024 Leadership Development Program (LDP), I can’t help but reflect on all the knowledge, relationships, and tools I have gained from the three-month-long program... Throughout [my three] terms of service, the LDP has been a time to reflect on my own personal and professional growth. But more importantly, it’s been a time to reflect on the new version of me I’ve discovered in the past year, and set goals for who I want to become.

Meet Garrick Harmel, a 2001-2002 MCC alum and new Board member. Garrick is excited to continue serving the organization that gave him so much. He is passionate about creating affordable housing and works as the Housing Specialist for Missoula County. Read on for more about his MCC experience.

Originally constructed in 1915 by MSU students, the M gets an annual coat of white paint each fall. But after years as Bozeman’s most beloved hiking destination, the sitting area at the base of the M needed some work. That’s where MCC comes in, to provide some much-needed TLC in the form of a new retaining wall and benches!

Montana Conservation Corps was in many ways just what I had expected: time hiking up and down mountains, camping in wooded valleys, and rigorous labor that strengthened my muscles. Until I experienced my first hitch with my crew, I assumed that would be all I took away from the season. What I hadn’t expected was the confidence I would gain from mastering technical skills and feeling the embrace of support from MCC.

It’s 2 am. You’re floating in a kayak on a pristine pond and the sky is a canopy of glittering stars above you. Everything is quiet except for the quiet lap of water against your boat and the occasional ripple of a fish or turtle. Suddenly, you hear it. “Waaah-ohh…” “Waaah-ohh…” Was that a bullfrog? You pause in wait, sweeping your headlamp around to catch its eyes to stun it. There! With a quick “Swooosh”... “SPLASH!”... “Squelchhh” you’ve got it on your gig pole. You’ve just caught yourself an invasive North American bullfrog and brought this area one step closer to full eradication of these amphibian invaders.

While working in a pharmaceutical laboratory, Sean Simpson found herself longing for a more fulfilling and hands-on experience related to environmental stewardship. Fast forward a few months and Sean is now an AmeriCorps member serving through MCC’s Big Sky Watershed Corps program - a program that places members with a host site for 11 months.

Christina is a three-time MCC Youth Expedition alum and winner of the 2023 ServeMontana Youth Award. She’s just about to enter her senior year of high school in Missoula. We caught up with her to learn more about winning this award, her experience with MCC, and what’s next.

The adaptability I’ve learned has given me patience, caring for the crew has given me confidence, and doing work that I believe in and making a difference has given me purpose.

"When we get leaders out there every year, we actually see the impacts and success. Especially with weed removal and herbicides, you don’t often get to see the results in a single season. It really gets people engaged and inspired.”

As the sun rises over the majestic peaks of Yellowstone National Park, casting a golden glow on the towering trees and vibrant meadows, a sense of awe and wonder fills the air. It’s here, amidst this breathtaking scenery, that our crew embarks on a journey like no other.

“That’s where MCC comes in,” said Mandy Alvino, Recreation Operations Lead of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, “they were the top choice on the list to get the non-equipment work done.”

Teens and young adults today are facing unprecedented anxieties about the world. Fortunately, MCC’s programs address these crises: we provide our participants with the tools to face these challenges and emerge empowered.

It was the first real hitch of our Summer season with MCC, and I was reminded why I fell in love with conservation corps in the first place.

We sat down with our Vice President of Programs, Stacey Williams, to chat about MCC’s new Temporary Relief Fund, which was developed as a way to distribute limited financial assistance to our corps members who are experiencing unexpected financial hardship that impacts their ability to serve with us.

Take a walk down MCC’s memory lane, and learn some exciting news for the future!

“I don’t give myself the option to quit what I started. I’m going to get through it. It may be a bad day, but it's not a bad life. I want to be the best me.”

"One of my crew members carried a 35mm film camera with them all summer. They’re some of my favorite photos from the season... Those photos, to me, hold our little family living in memory in our cabin on the creek under the cedars. That’s part of why these memories are so special. We were free to be our true selves in a non-male space."

"Since my previous term as a crew leader ended, I find myself most frequently reflecting upon the themes and lessons of communication and team facilitation learned during Summit. And now, a little over two months into my current term as a Senior Crew Leader, it has been the most impactful week of the 2023 Leadership Development Program thus far."

Read about Paul's journey from serving with MCC, to Tanzania, to now at Visa!

As large squash leaves wave in the breeze under a bluebird sky, Cora crouches between the rows to slowly hand-pollinate the bright orange blooms. The sun beats down on her green MCC shirt, and dirt crusts her knees and under her fingernails. When she signed up for a term with MCC, she wasn’t expecting to spend her days gardening. But here among the dirt, leaves, and open sky, she has found her calling.

At the beginning of the season, before I had even met my crew members, I remember sitting down in the garden outside of the Western Wildlands office and writing out a list of goals that I had for myself and for my crew. It included things like fostering a safe space for personal growth, a mandate for individual and collective accountability, and growing in strength in whatever way that meant for each person. On the last line of my notes, there’s just one word. A question. Play?

Standing in hip-high waders, Francie balances precariously on the soft, muddy bottom of Holland Lake. Skimming the underside of the large floating leaf in front of her with her fingertips, she searches for the stem. There! She follows it lower and lower into the cold lake water, all the way down to the goo at her feet. Carefully, she worms her fingers deep into the mud and digs out the root. Sweet success! She triumphantly whips the freed plant above her head and into an awaiting black trash bag. Today, she is entirely focused on one thing: seeking out and destroying invasive water lilies.

This summer, Farah (15) joined MCC for the third time in two years, and Alcyone (16), spent nearly half her summer with MCC. Through our partnership with the Glacier National Park Conservancy and the park, MCC offers 2 and 4-week Glacier Youth Corps service expeditions for local teens. Let’s hear what they have to say about their summer spent volunteering in Glacier National Park.

The beginning of the season can be tough for everyone. After all the training is over, we delve right into the work. Whether we measure up to the task is up to us.

Looking around this pine forest, you can almost hear the echo of MCC members of the past. The sounds of a pick mattock ringing when it hits a rock, the thumping of countless boots over packed earth, or the shouted warning as someone hefts a rock downhill. You can feel the presence of generations of MCC’ers that have been working on this trail, the Wallman Trail, for over 15 years. This trail is an important connector between two highly used corridors in the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area (RNRA), and this reroute is an effort to make it safer, disperse use, and offer a better user experience. This summer we inch towards finally finishing it for good and opening it to the public.

Last April, Mallard and I arrived in Montana from opposite ends of the country to spend a summer living and sawing alongside ten other people in the canyons and desert valleys of Wyoming. It was a three-and-a-half-month lifetime. Everything we had experienced together as crewmates had culminated in the view from the hill we now sat on.

When I left my home state to join the Big Sky Watershed Corps program, I was more than ready to go. I was tired of all the time spent sitting for hours in fluorescent-lit classrooms or counting grass roots in a range lab without setting foot outdoors, leg jumping under the table, ready to go, ready to do.

As LDP (the Leadership Development Program) comes to a wrap in the Northern Rockies, some important takeaways about leadership have risen above the rest: the power of togetherness, the magic of vulnerability, and strength in knowing our limits.

With MCC, it was love. Not love for someone, or even for a place though I did love where I was. But love for a way of being alive, a way of being a leader. 

After years of guiding summer expeditions during college, serving as an MCC Youth Expedition leader provided me with challenges and successes that I had never experienced elsewhere. Instead of simply recreating in these beautiful spaces, we were learning about their history, contributing to their maintenance, and growing as individuals.

My first term as a Big Sky Watershed Corps Member was surprising, to say the least... I was expecting to do some research, play in some creeks, and learn a bit more about what a career in conservation could look like. Instead, I spent my year immersed in the complex world of western water law while learning my way around a new community... It was not an easy year.

Robert was looking for an outdoor career with purpose. So, last year he took a leap of faith that landed him in our Northern Rockies region serving as a crew member. He enjoyed his term so much that he is returning this season to serve as a crew leader! Read on as we dive into what Robert learned last year, and what he is excited to accomplish as a crew leader.

My crew’s last backcountry hitch was spent on the shores of remote Harrison Lake in Glacier National Park, improving the nearby trail. Often on quiet mornings during those ten beautiful September days, I would stand on the shore of the waking lake sipping my coffee while my bagel toasted. I’d marvel at how the water was so still in the morning, like a waiting drum with its skin pulled tight.

A Billings native, Molly served with MCC back in 2010 with the Northern Rockies region. Now, Molly works at Bandwidth Inc. as a Senior Business Analyst where she bridges the gap between the IT and customer support teams. She is also a certified yoga instructor and enjoys volunteering in her community. Read on for more about her time with MCC and to see how her experiences shaped her life and career path.

MCC is at the nexus of a national trails revival in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. This summer, MCC crews are tackling projects in five of these priority areas.

In the past two years, MCC has improved over 807 miles of trail including removing 22,123 blown down trees and clearing debris from 2,406 drainage structures in these priority areas!

Crouched next to the pond in their childhood backyard, young Clo loved observing frogs and other slimy native critters. From this fascination bloomed a love of herpetology, or the study of amphibians and reptiles. Today, you can find Clo doing what they do best - monitoring and researching frogs, turtles, and pond sliders with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MFWP) as part of MCC’s Conservation Fellows program.