At the VFW National Home in Michigan, five veterans have built skills and experience in farming, particularly in regenerative ag practices. One vet studies forestry undergrowth and how to use shade to grow crops like shiitake mushrooms. Another is developing expertise in pollinator habitat.
All five are members of the Working Land Conservation Corps, a Biden administration initiative aimed at training new conservation professionals able to help farmers adopt new practices to address resource concerns and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
But as the Trump administration rolls back Biden-era climate programs, federal funding for the Working Lands Conservation Corps is drawing to a halt. Organizations hosting volunteers through the program have been informed that they will stop being reimbursed for program costs on Thursday.
Mike Wilson, VFW National HomeTheir work was funded by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.
“This grant was perfect for us to give opportunities to some of our veterans who are looking for something out of the ordinary,” said Mike Wilson, executive director at VFW National Home.
“You don't get out of the military and just go become a farmer. You have to either be born into it and raised into it, or you have to farm hand for a while and hopefully find somebody to sell you some land.”
Now, these organizations must choose between letting go of their corps members or, in the case of VFW National Home, dipping into their own funding to keep their efforts going.
Organizations grapple with funding cuts
Former President Joe Biden unveiled the American Climate Corps in 2023. The initiative used agencies’ existing authorities to fund volunteer positions that would task young Americans with planting trees, restoring waterways, deploying renewable energy sources and engaging in other work meant to combat the effects of climate change. It was retooled from a $30 billion Civilian Climate Corps program that was proposed through the Build Back Better Act, which in 2021 passed the House but failed to make it through the Senate.
An array of different programs were housed under the Biden administration's American Climate Corps umbrella, like the Forest Corps, the Clean Environment Corps and the Energy Communities AmeriCorps. Among these was the Working Lands Climate Corps, a partnership between USDA, AmeriCorps, the Corps Network and the National Association of Conservation Districts.
The Working Lands Climate Corps launched in 2024 with the goal of training more than 100 young Americans to provide outreach and technical assistance to farmers looking to implement conservation practices. It was later renamed the Working Lands Conservation Corps.
State agencies, conservation districts and nonprofits would host these positions, with minimum stipends of $11 per hour that were to be reimbursed by the Corps Network, a nonprofit, with money received from NRCS. Volunteers could also see up to $7,395 million of their student loans paid off, depending on their length of service.
Initially, 28 organizations were selected to host volunteers. They were given until no later than Sept. 30 to begin their projects, with the understanding that they’d be reimbursed for corps members' stipends, travel costs and supplies.
But many, if not all, are still waiting for at least some of that money to be paid out, according to interviews with multiple project leaders.
The Corps Network, which oversees the funding for WLCC, was awaiting $500,000 from the USDA’s NRCS as of Feb. 14, according to a letter sent to host organizations obtained by Agri-Pulse. As a result, the Corps Network terminated all sub-agreements under WLCC effective March 13, meaning costs incurred after that date will not be reimbursed.
This move followed the Jan. 27 Office of Management and Budget memo temporarily freezing agency funding.
"The American Climate Corps, including the Working Lands Conservation Corps, is ending," a USDA spokesperson said in a statement. "USDA is completing this process so that all outstanding payments can be made as soon as possible."
The Corps Network told organizations it would work with them to identify potential non-federal funds. But many, including several interviewed by Agri-Pulse, have been left with no choice but to let go of their corps members.
“I feel bad that we have to do it,” said Chippewa Luce Mackinac Conservation District Executive Director Mike McCarthy, whose district will be parting ways with one volunteer on Thursday.
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Pasa Sustainable Agriculture has six WLCC members, which will all be let go by Thursday, said Christina Kostelecky, finance and administrative services co-director at the organization. Because Pasa is also awaiting other federal reimbursements and is facing a potential furlough of other staff, the organization was unable to find enough alternative funds to continue supporting the members.
Kostelecky said corps members were instrumental in making farm visits, developing conservation plans and writing complex environmental reviews. Additionally, they were responsible for developing protocols and training systems for other members, and broadly doing a lot of the day-to-day work at the organization.
Another host organization involved with the WLCC will let go of three corps members who were responsible for technical assistance and supporting grazing specialists.
“We had hope that we were setting them up for technical assistance provider roles in the future, with Pasa, with partner, sister organizations, with NRCS,” Kostelecky said. “All of the things they were doing would have made them really fantastic conservationists for the rest of their career.”
Kostelecky said there’s already a lot of challenges for the next generation of conservationists to learn and acquire the skills needed for these roles. She said the WLCC program was a way to invest in and train these future conservationists so they could be quickly prepared to take on these roles.
“This was an incredible program that really set up future generations of conservation to be excited about and have experience with a lot of different types of farms, different types of agriculture, different types of growers and really meeting the diverse needs of the diverse agricultural realm,” Kostelecky said.
Wilson with VFW National Home said the organization is missing about $140,000 in reimbursements. To keep the project going and continue supporting the efforts of five veterans, the group will pull from scholarship money in the trust fund. These funds are typically used to support veteran spouses.
VFW National Home was hoping to reapply and maintain the project for years to come. After this initial year, the group plans to fundraise at least half the funds expected to come through the federal grant.
“We probably wouldn't have entertained this if there wasn't some, some level of perpetuity, or some level of sustainment,” Wilson said.
TSP training cut short
Jennifer Byrne, district manager at the White River Natural Resources Conservation District, which stretches across four counties in Vermont, said the district has yet to be reimbursed for $200,000 it has accrued while supporting 30 corps members. Half of these volunteers are located in Vermont, while the other half are based in the Virgin Islands, where she said interest in USDA conservation programs has historically been limited.
The district closed its program last Friday, Byrne said. She said the organization does not have the money to pay the volunteers’ stipends in March, so it is not keeping anyone on.
Jennifer Byrne, White River Natural Resources Conservation DistrictThe district's Virgin Islands volunteers were meant to help bolster access to technical assistance, since all 13 USDA engineers in the Caribbean area are located on a different island — Puerto Rico. Since their arrival, the island's residents have submitted 55 Environmental Quality Incentives Program applications. Never before has that number been in the double digits, she said.
"We did our job,” Byrne said. "We fulfilled our deliverables in four months of a twelve-month program. We vastly exceeded our deliverables in four months. And they shut us down.”
By the end of September, corps members were supposed to have received some training needed to become technical service providers, private-sector conservation specialists able to help producers plan conservation projects, fill out paperwork and otherwise perform duties normally left to agency staff. As NRCS attempts to handle an increasing workload while simultaneously grappling with the effects of persistent staffing shortages, TSPs have been seen as one way to decrease the agency’s burden.
However, the WLCC program’s early shutdown means these efforts to train new TSPs will be cut short, Byrne said. Shortages of qualified specialists on the Virgin Islands will remain, potentially dissuading the island’s farmers from applying for NRCS programs in the future, she added.
McCarthy, the Chippewa Luce Mackinac Conservation District executive director, said his district serves an area where members of Native American tribes represent almost 20% of the general population, but has struggled to provide services to them.
Chippewa Luce Mackinac’s corps member was supposed to help the district develop deeper connections with these tribal members so that it could help better meet their needs. The volunteer was also supposed to improve outreach to local Amish farmers, who represent a small fraction of the local population but have their own cultures and farming styles.
“It’s just not a population we’ve worked with,” McCarthy said of Amish farmers. “I don’t think the problem is that they don’t know about us. I think the problem is that they don’t know how they can work with us. We’ve never provided the outreach to them.”
Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish called cancellation of the program “just another slap in the face” of young people who are “energized and want to do good things.”
One corps member hosted by the Minnesota Farmers Union was supposed to help organize events, create educational materials and assist in providing on-the-ground assistance to farmers interested in adopting conservation practices. But the short duration of that person’s service meant that they were unable to get very far in that effort, Wertish said.
“It was just the beginning of that program, so we don’t really know how much it could have benefited,” he said. “That’s the disappointing part.”
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