02-05-2025
Trump's dismantling of AmeriCorps puts Wisconsin environmental service program at risk
A service program that sends young people across Wisconsin to maintain trails, control invasive species and teach about the outdoors is in jeopardy after the federal government slashed funding for AmeriCorps.
Central Conservation, a nonprofit conservation agency, hosts around 90 AmeriCorps members each year to staff the Wisconsin Conservation Corps, better known as WisCorps, and The Nature Place, a nature-focused community center in La Crosse.
Its full-time employees were directed late in the night April 27 to stop all work that involved using a grant they received from AmeriCorps. That funding was for between $1.4 and $1.5 million. The reasoning was the same given to scores of federally funded programs canceled in recent weeks: It "no longer effectuates agency priorities."
Seventeen AmeriCorps members were already serving with WisCorps and The Nature Place in Dane County, Wisconsin Dells, La Crosse and elsewhere. Forty-three more were preparing to be on their way to Wisconsin for summer work.
Central Conservation is scrambling to figure out if it can hold onto those currently serving and those who were expecting to have summer employment. But even if the organization can manage to blunt the impacts, said WisCorps director Eric Robertson, people will feel the loss.
"It's taking the fuel out of the plane as it's flying," Robertson said. "It's a middle finger to these people who invested their time to really make a modest living allowance, really just to be kicked to the curb."
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WisCorps launched 16 years ago but partnered with AmeriCorps beginning in 2018 to dramatically expand its footprint. Today it sends members out in teams or individually to work on the Ice Age Trail, the shoreline of Lake Superior, state and national parks and other public lands, where they tackle community needs but also receive hands-on training that could shape future careers in conservation.
AmeriCorps was created more than three decades ago by former President Bill Clinton. In addition to serving communities through conservation, disaster response, health care and other areas, AmeriCorps members get professional development and funds to pay for further schooling or pay off student loans.
It has recently become a target of the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, aimed at drastically shrinking the size and scope of the federal government. In mid-April, AmeriCorps' National Civilian Community Corps members were discharged. In the most recent cuts, DOGE ordered the service program to terminate nearly $400 million in grants — one of which was for Central Conservation.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly has pointed the Journal Sentinel to recent audits of the AmeriCorps program and concerns about waste, fraud and abuse in response to questions about the cuts.
'Over $100 million in taxpayer funds remain unaccounted for at AmeriCorps, which has failed eight consecutive audits," Kelly said in an email.
The program's inspector general said last November that it has been unable to produce auditable financial statements for the last eight years and suggested improvements for financial management.
Wisconsin is among 24 states suing over the cuts, which Attorney General Josh Kaul called "part of a pattern from the Trump administration of disrespect toward those who serve others."
In the meantime, there will be tough decisions.
Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center, a 320-acre mostly forested property along the Wisconsin River near Wisconsin Dells, is gearing up for spring and fall school field trips, as well as about 30 summer camp groups. The staff was counting on two WisCorps members, who'd been with the center since last September, to help run the show.
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Now, center staff must decide quickly whether they have the financial means to keep their WisCorps members on through the end of their term in August. And the WisCorps members themselves — one of whom moved to the Dells from Ohio — have to decide whether they want to stay, knowing that they may not receive the money for their service meant for student loans and other college payments.
Upham Woods has hosted multiple groups of WisCorps members, said center director Amy Workman, doing everything from rebuilding boardwalks to constructing safer trails to running an early childhood nature camp. The center was readying for the possibility of not getting another round of WisCorps members in the fall, but to have it happen so suddenly put everyone in a difficult position, she said.
At Kickapoo Valley Forest School, a public charter school in western Wisconsin's Vernon County focused on environmental education for young children, two WisCorps members serve as classroom assistants. It's a crucial role, said Jonel Kiesau, the school's leadership and planning coordinator, because the children spend several hours per day outside and need additional supervision during those activities. WisCorps has been an affordable way to accomplish that, she said.
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Kiesau has asked her school board to find a way to keep the current WisCorps members on through the end of the school year.
"We really weren't prepared," Kiesau said. "Nobody thought this would affect our programs so quickly and immediately. It's really hard to pivot."
Central Conservation is urgently seeking outside funds to keep current AmeriCorps members around, Robertson said. He anticipated six would need to be suspended at the end of the week without a clear available funding source. He called the impending start of roughly 35 summer projects across the state that would have been staffed by AmeriCorps members "an uncontained wildfire on the horizon."
Those projects include planting tree seedlings near Lake Superior, improving mountain bike trails in the North Woods, conducting youth programs in Door County, installing a safe boardwalk at a nature preserve in Two Rivers and working on park restoration with at-risk youth in Kenosha County.
Robertson said he's hopeful the communities where these projects were to occur might be able to offer support to still get them accomplished.
"We want to see these projects happen," he said. "If we lose that, we lose ourselves ... who are we? And will we continue?"
Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter who writes about environmental issues in the Mississippi River watershed and across Wisconsin. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or mheim@
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: WisCorps conservation program in jeopardy as Trump slashes AmeriCorps
