Trading Screens for Saplings: How the Youth Conservation Corps is Building a Climate-Resilient Landscape

Welcome to the second installment of Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) Nature Nuggets, a recurring summer series highlighting the incredible environmental work by local youth happening right here in our island community. The YCC is an employment and environmental education program of the San Juan Islands Conservation District (SJICD). Through hands-on conservation projects, local teens gain paid work experience, develop leadership and job skills, and help care for the islands' unique natural resources. YCC is made possible in large part through the generosity of community donors.

Youth Conservation Corps crew member, Beau Bernhardt, has spent his summer hard at work on conservation projects across the islands. 

While many teenagers spend their summer glued to phones, 16-year-old Beau Bunhardt is lugging buckets of water up Turtleback Mountain under a blazing sun—and he is happy to be doing it.

Beau, a first-year member of the Orcas Island Youth Conservation Corps crew, spent several days this summer alongside peers helping the San Juan County Conservation Land Bank tend to young Garry oaks at the Turtleback Mountain Preserve. While the work is physically demanding, Beau finds satisfaction in its deeper meaning.

"You can see Garry oaks all over Turtleback Mountain, especially down by the South Trailhead parking area," Beau said. "They're a really important part of our islands’ ecosystem, but they've been wiped out by climate change and historic logging. Plus, we lost those cultural burns that the Coast Salish people did for thousands of years."

The Garry oak (Quercus garryana) is a native deciduous tree that thrives in the dry prairies of the San Juan Islands' rain shadow. For millennia, Coast Salish peoples carefully stewarded these ecosystems using cultural burning. These controlled burns maintained the open habitats required by the oaks and the diverse community of plants and wildlife that depend on them.

Following European settlement, cultural burning largely ceased. Many native prairies gradually gave way to dense Douglas-fir forests valued for timber production. Today, ecologists recognize the importance of restoring these historic ecosystems and learning from Indigenous stewardship practices.

Unlike species such as Western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and Western red cedar, the resilient Garry oak is exceptionally suited to the increasingly hot, dry summers of the San Juan Islands. Restoring Garry oak habitat is now an important strategy for building ecological resilience against climate change.

The San Juan Islands Conservation District, in partnership with local Tribes, is working to restore historic prairies through cultural burning, Garry oak planting, and habitat restoration. Islands Conservation Corps crew members plant Garry oak saplings and install protective cages to reduce browsing by deer and rabbits. However, once the ICC season ends, those young trees need care during the hottest months of the year.

That's where the Youth Conservation Corps steps in.

Each summer, YCC crews maintain protective tree cages and provide supplemental watering to newly planted Garry oaks at restoration sites throughout the islands.

Beau and the YCC crews have also learned about the many species that depend on Garry oak ecosystems.

"So many animals depend on them, like the Taylor's checkerspot butterfly and western bluebirds that actually nest inside the old oaks,” he said, “Other species need a healthy oak habitat to survive, too."

Working on these projects has given Beau a new perspective on the natural world.

"I've learned so much about the land around me and how everything is connected," he said. "If just one species disappears, it can mess with everything else in the food web."

He added, "I'm just really happy to do things to help the islands, like pull invasive weeds, restore the Garry oaks, and learn about our marine food webs. Seeing how it all comes together really does make a difference."

YCC—an essential program of the San Juan Islands Conservation District—offers more than just summer employment. It is an antidote to screen fatigue and isolation. By stepping away from devices and into the field, 40 young islanders each summer build real-world skills, deep local connections, and a profound sense of stewardship for the home they will one day inherit.

It is also an investment in our islands’ future. Every tree saved is a step toward a more resilient landscape for future generations.

Join us in investing in our youth—and the sustainable future they are working so hard to protect.

To learn more about the program or to make a contribution, please visit www.sanjuanislandscd.org/ycc.