>>2565937>Easily the greatest year of my lifeSame, wish I did it more instead of chasing better paying jobs but I'm in my late 20's now. I was in NCCC in 2017-2018. We bounced from Northern Cali doing trail maintenance and post-fire restoration, to Bozeman, MT helping to build housing, and then back to Northern Cali to do prescribed fires and project work around a forest.
Gave me a great worth ethic instead of gaming all day and showed me parts of the US I would never have seen since I never traveled anywhere as a kid. It gave me all the certifications to work a couple seasons in wildland firefighting.
I recommend it to everyone.
>>2566148I'd say if you have any interest in doing conservation corps despite the low pay, I would recommend that before a seasonal forestry position. There's also AmeriCorps St Louis which is an Emergency Response Team - less backcountry type work but you'll still get opportunity to do wildland fire.
These programs are really fun when you're young but if you're older and like being treated like an adult/having more freedom, then I'd recommend just going seasonal forestry.