The Badlands Conservation Corps is a collaboration between BCA and Strengthen ND to bring AmeriCorps field crew members out to work on short-term service projects to improve the grasslands of western North Dakota.

From May to July, 2025, the six-person Badlands Conservation Corps field crew provided approximately 1,800 hours of service. Working alongside 13 project partners, Badlands Conservation Corps maintained 40 miles of trails, removed 4.75 miles of fencing, installed or repaired 30 mile markers and other posts, placed eight benches, and reinforced two erosion-preventing bridges. The crew built a temporary bridge over Knutson Creek, installed wildlife-friendly fencing at Logging Camp Ranch, and built an earthen dam at White Butte. Over a three-day period in June, Badlands Conservation Corps worked with the U.S. Forest Service, Montana Conservation Corps, and a team of volunteers to build the Bear Creek bridge and reinstall a gate.

The season began with orientation at Logging Camp Ranch. BCA Executive Director Shannon Straight and BCC Project Coordinator Spring Bakke were joined by four AmeriCorps members: Ella, Elliot, Joe and Sinaiah. For three of them, it was their first time visiting North Dakota’s Badlands.

“The Badlands are really cool,” said Ella, a sophomore who’s double majoring in biology (with an emphasis in conservation and ecology) and natural resource management. “It's really pretty. It's very different from the eastern part of the state.” When asked about where she sees her career taking her, Ella responds, “In the future, I want to do something with wildlife conservation.”

Sinaiah initially studied art in Oregon but later majored in zoology with a minor in entomology. She expressed that the Badlands were “especially enticing to me because everyone that I worked with previously had told me, if you're in North Dakota, you have to go there at least once.”

Strengthen ND AmeriCorps Coordinator Beth Odahlen with the BCC field crew at Logging Camp Ranch. From left to right: Beth Odahlen, Elliot, Joe, Shannon Straight, Ella, and Sinaiah. Photo by Spring Bakke, May 28th, 2025.

“Through my brief experiences with the Badlands, I always knew that I felt super connected to it,” said Elliot, a biology major, and the only crew member who had previously spent time in western North Dakota. “I wanted to know more about it. So when the opportunity arose to really be in it and among all the people who could teach me about it, I was like, ‘this is it.’”

Several crew members expressed that they were nervous, before starting their term of service, about whether they would fit in with this group of people they were going to be spending their summer with. Once they were in western North Dakota, they found connection over communal dinners, a shared sense of humor, and their love of music. But Joe, whose majors are in unmanned aircraft operations and fisheries and wildlife biology, put it best: “The whole group is of that mindset of stopping and taking a look at something—which often means we don't go very far down the trail, maybe ten feet, before someone's looking at a bird, or someone else is looking at an insect, or I’ve wandered off to go find a fossil.” Above all, the group bonded over their love of nature.

White Butte

On May 29th, Badlands Conservation Corps worked with members of the Maah Daah Hey Trail Association to maintain 1.7 miles of trail at White Butte, and to improve erosion and drainage issues by building an earthen dam and reinforcing two wooden bridges. To prevent erosion from cut switchbacks, the crew installed nine posts to encourage hikers to stay on the main trail. BCC reseeded and raked 600 feet of trail with native grass seeds for habitat restoration, and placed rocks for erosion control around the trail register and survey marker on the peak of White Butte.

MDHTA explained the necessity of the work the crew did on White Butte: “When foot traffic is concentrated, such as on a casual trail, it doesn’t take long for the vegetation which protects the hillside from erosion to deteriorate, exposing soil to erosion. [...] One part of the old trail has eroded over four feet deep as a result of continued use. A few hundred people each year used to find their way to the top of White Butte prior to the cooperative trail improvement project between Slope County, the owner, Mary Dennis, Highpointers Foundation, and MDHTA, but since the improvement there are probably thousands annually climbing to the top.”

Thanks to Curt Glasoe (President, MDHTA), Jesse Hanson (Treasurer, MDHTA), and Roger Ashley and Pat Ashley (lifetime members of MDHTA). Thanks to Ernie Holzmer for providing the weathered posts.

National Trails Day in TRNP

Founded by the American Hiking Society, National Trails Day is an annual celebration of public events focused on advocacy and trail service.

On June 7th, this year’s National Trails Day, Badlands Conservation Corps worked alongside volunteers and NPS rangers to maintain 5.2 miles of the Ekblom and lower Maah Daah Hey Trails in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, including clearing brush, removing trash, and repairing 19 guideposts. Between Volunteers-In-Parks, members of the Maah Daah Hey Trail Association, the BCC field crew, and other volunteers, a total of 147 hours of volunteer time were donated on June 7th.

National Trails Day, June 7th, 2025. Photo by Jennifer Morlock.

During the week leading up to National Trails Day, and in the days following, BCC maintained 26.3 miles of trails in TRNP. BCC cleared trails of encroaching vegetation and built a temporary bridge on Knutson Creek. In addition to the Ekblom and Maah Daah Hey Trails, BCC worked on CCC Trail, Petrified Forest Trail, Wind Canyon, and Peaceful Valley Trailhead. In the North Unit, BCC worked on Caprock Coulee Trail and Sperati Point Trail.

Ella’s experience with the Knutson Creek bridge highlights the importance of working with a supportive team. “That was my first time ever using a hammer or nails,” she explained, “which can be embarrassing. But every time we use a new tool, I am a little nervous that I’m going to do it wrong, but it doesn’t really matter that much if I do it wrong, because there are so many people who are there to help me. […] It’s a little nerve wracking, but after you start, it’s fine.”

Thanks to the staff at TRNP, including Phil McCall, Janelle Bargmann, and Robert Elswick.

Three Affiliated Tribes National Park

To accomplish the project at Three Affiliated Tribes National Park, Badlands Conservation Corps partnered with several other groups, including North Dakota Wildlife Federation (John Bradley and Cara Greger), Mule Deer Foundation (Casey Nordine and Dave Stockdill), and staff from TAT National Park (Ethan White Calfe, Fawn Fettig, and Mary Fredricks). Thanks to everyone who helped make this project happen.

The team worked together to remove one-third-mile of cross fencing, about 140–200 T posts, and a large garbage pile. TAT National Park is a beautiful setting, and several BCC crew members highlighted how much they enjoyed their time there. “The project that I'm most proud of would be the Tribal Park,” Ella remarked, noting that helping the newly-founded park was her “most satisfying day.”

Elliot, who called the project his favorite, explained the intricacies of fence removal. “There are four lines that you have to unclip on every post. You have to spool the barbed wire,” he said, “sometimes by hand, which was an interesting thing to learn how to do. You have to pull posts—sometimes also by hand.”

Despite the rain later in the week, and the smoke from Canadian wildfires, the crew was in good spirits as they wrapped up the project and disposed of debris.

“BCC in its first year was a huge success and we look forward to partnering with them again in the future. Without BCC, NDWF would have struggled to complete our habitat and access work. With limited staff, NDWF relies on programs like the BCC to deliver habitat and access programs. Outdoor recreationists, hunters, and our wildlife would be worse off if BCC didn’t exist.”

— John Bradley, Executive Director of NDWF

The previous fencing was not wildlife friendly, so its removal will make it easier for wildlife to navigate through the park. On social media, TAT National Park occasionally shares photos from their trail cameras, including elk, coyotes, and moose. You can find upcoming events, including guided hikes, on their Facebook and their website, tatnationalpark.com.

Later in the season, BCC returned to TAT National Park to maintain a quarter-mile of trail.

Bear Creek Bridge

The Bear Creek bridge is located on the Maah Daah Hey Trail between mile markers 19 and 20, a few miles south of the Bear Creek trailhead. In 2023, the old bridge was destroyed; the gully eroded so severely that the bridge fell into the creek. Building the new bridge required the collaboration of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC), Badlands Conservation Corps, and a team of volunteers.

On the morning of June 15th, BCC and MCC met with USFS staff at a trail access point about a three-mile hike from the project site. The crews were joined by Jeff Davis (Dakota Prairie Grasslands Recreation Trails Manager), Alex Manard (DPG Recreation Program Manager), and USFS packers Robin Connell and John Leader with their team of 10 pack mules. It was the first time in over 20 years that the Northern Region Pack Train worked in North Dakota.

Over the course of June 15th and 16th, the mules carried timber and other materials to the project site while the corpsmembers carried tools, cleared vegetation to prepare the area, and began laying the bridge’s foundation.

A team of about 15 people met at the Bear Creek trailhead at 8 a.m. on June 18th. By 4 p.m. the bridge would be finished, the gate would be disassembled and reinstalled, and new fencing would be in place.

Crew members from BCC and MCC with the USFS Pack Train, Robin Connell, John Leader, Jeff Davis, and volunteer Tom Dickson at Bear Creek. Photo by Nora Swenson, June 16th, 2025.

“I like being challenged,” said Sinaiah. “The project work is my favorite aspect of the entire service right now.” Sinaiah explained that she had never used an auger prior to digging post holes for the fence around the new Bear Creek bridge, and that carpentry, whether simple or complex, is “not something I've ever done before. I'm not a carpenter, but I'm wearing a carpenter hat right now, which is really cool.”

Thanks to all of the volunteers who helped make this new bridge a reality, including Tom Dickson (member of BCA and MDHTA), Jesse Hanson, Roger and Pat Ashley, and Phil Helfrich (Save the Maah Daah Hey).

Thanks to Strengthen ND and Indak Media, who produced a short video highlighting the involvement of BCA’s AmeriCorps members. You can find the video by heading to BCA’s website or social media.

Joey Harris reported on the project for the Bismarck Tribune in a June 21st article titled, “Building a bridge with the help of 10 mules on North Dakota's Maah Daah Hey Trail.” According to Connell, the hungry mules enjoyed their time in the Badlands “because of all the grass you guys have.”

In Harris’s article, Straight said that “he hopes the work that Badlands Conservation Alliance is doing with AmeriCorps will inspire more North Dakotans to make full use of their public lands and volunteer at them, too.”

If you’d like to volunteer with BCA, please reach out. Mark your calendar for National Trails Day next year: Saturday, June 6th, 2026.

Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library

Badlands Conservation Corps joined Cara Greger (NDWF Conservation Coordinator) on June 19th to help sort plugs of native plants to be planted on the roof of Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which will open on July 4th, 2026 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The crew with native plant plugs. June 19th, 2025. From left to right: Elliot, Cara Greger, Joe, Sinaiah, Uriah, Shannon Straight, Spring Bakke.

Support and Partnerships

Thank you to our project partners: Strengthen ND, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Maah Daah Hey Trail Association, Three Affiliated Tribes National Park, Dakota Prairie National Grasslands Forest Service, North Dakota Wildlife Federation, Doug and Ted Tescher, John and Jennifer Hanson of Logging Camp Ranch, Northern Region Pack Train, Mule Deer Foundation, and Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Thank you to all of the professional mentors who shared their expertise with us, including Valerie Naylor, Retired National Park Superintendent; Jesse Kolar, Wildlife Biologist; Cami Dixon, Retired Fish and Wildlife Service; Sara Simmers, Meadowlark Environmental; and Heather Husband, Meadowlark Initiative.

Badlands Conservation Alliance is grateful for the support provided by donors and sponsors including Northern Bottling Company, Baker Boy, Cloverdale Country Store, Runnings, Costco, Minot Restaurant Supply, Straight’s Concessions, LLC., Lillian Crook, Rhonda Kubousek, and Jennifer Morlock (Dakota Cyclery).

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Badlands Conservation Corps: 2025 Project Season