PA Outdoor Corps 2026 - Appalachian Trail Conservancy

The Pennsylvania Outdoor Corps (PAOC) is a youth conservation workforce development and training program for youth and young adults.

By the numbers:

Ten Years: The partnership responsible for the PAOC is the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PA DCNR) and the the Student Conservation Association (SCA) is ten!

5 Years: The ATC has facilitated the connection of PAOC to the A.T. Clubs since 2022.

2 Years: A grant from Athletic Brewery’s Two for the Trails has supported this partnership in 2025 and 2026.

1st: This is the first year that a youth corps has done boundary work on the Appalachian Trail (A.T.).

Here are some highlights from summer crews on the A.T.:

The Harrisburg Young Adult Crew worked with the Cumberland Valley A.T. Club and the ATC’s Science and Stewardship Boundary program staff to monitor and maintain the boundary. This crew had a very productive 4 days and the club looks forward to working with them again next year.

Group of hikers in orange safety vests on a rocky trail, with leafless trees and a valley view in the distance.

The Wilkes-Barre Young Adult Crew, with members from Wilkes-Barre and the surrounding area in northeast Pennsylvania, spent a week in late June and early July working on the A.T. near the crossing of PA 309. They continued work on a 1000-foot-long relocation that the Mid-Atlantic Crew began in fall 2025, clearing trail corridor, pulling rocks and roughing in the intended alignment.

Five people rest along a forest trail, with backpacks; a person in a bright yellow shirt sits on a rock to the right while others sit or stand on the left. An orange measuring wheel lies on the ground near a tree.

The Reading youth crew, made of 6 high school and college age members and 2 leaders are spending 2 weeks working with the Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club (BMECC) near the crossing of Hawk Mountain Road. This crew is maintaining drainage structures and adding check steps and drainage where needed on a wet section of tread. Half of them worked on a crew and on the A.T. last year, too!

Photo shows the crew looking at a fossil with Alexis McAllister, BMECC Trail Supervisor