The fifth Napa Youth Stewardship Council (NYSC) has demonstrated incredible interest and participation in community service, leadership, and environmental issues over the past several months. 12 students from schools across the County came together to tackle projects like installing native plants on Conn Creek, planting oaks to reduce erosion in rangelands, and guiding volunteers in adding monarch habitat to vineyard and other types of properties.
This year, in partnership with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, NYSC guided 50 volunteers in installing over 600 native butterfly plants to add monarch habitat in Napa County and support statewide monarch recovery.
For their capstone service project, NYSC members are developing a Pollinator Plant Pick-up, aimed at distributing over 300 native milkweed and wildflowers to home gardeners throughout the community!
During the course of the program, NYSC members have met with 12 environmental professionals, visited 5 different local open space properties, guided 50 volunteers in stewardship; and they will have planted or distributed over 1,000 native plants in Napa County by the end of May. NYSC members from past years have gone on to earn scholarships, pursue environmental studies in college, and take part in additional leadership programs with California Academy of Sciences and Audubon Canyon Ranch.
NYSC is coordinated by Napa RCD. For the past several years, funding has been generously provided by Friends of the Napa River and Napa County Wildlife Conservation Commission. Land Trust of Napa County, Suscol Intertribal Council, Connolly Ranch, and USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service provide valuable stewardship projects and career mentorship to NYSC members through the year.
