About

The Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) is a month-long paid residential program for young people ages 15–18, offering two summer sessions at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Approximately 50 participants are selected each year from hundreds of national applicants — the only overnight YCC program in the entire National Park Service system, making it genuinely distinct from the dozens of day-based YCC programs at other federal sites. Corps members live at the YCC facility near Mammoth Hot Springs in dormitory housing, eating together in a central dining hall, and working Monday through Friday alongside National Park Service staff on active conservation projects: trail rehabilitation, campground restoration, boardwalk replacement, data collection for science projects, and resource management work. Crews camp four or more nights per week during assignments, including multi-day backcountry expeditions. Evenings and weekends are filled with recreational programming — hiking, rafting, fishing, and ranger-led interpretive activities in one of the most biodiverse landscapes in North America.

Participants are paid at federal minimum wage; room and board is charged at a minimal rate. No previous wilderness experience is required. Selection is by lottery from eligible applicants — the NPS uses this mechanism to recruit equitably from all social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds across the country. Applications open in February for that summer's sessions. For a teenager who wants to spend a month living and working in Yellowstone, earning a paycheck while doing real conservation work under NPS supervision, there is no comparable program.