The Green Bay Conservation Corps Earth Day event, April 22, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Funding for AmeriCorps is being reinstated after a federal judge ruling.
Wisconsin, along with 23 other states, sued the White House in April, shortly after DOGE cut nearly $400 million worth of AmeriCorps contracts.
This means Green Bay’s Conservation Corps will be able to work again at its full potential.
Conservation Corps members were hard at work Friday cleaning up Red Smith Park and putting native plants in the ground. Habitat restoration and repairing plant and wildlife ecosystems is the group’s bread and butter.
However, that niche was in jeopardy after the DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps took away more than 70% of their operational funding.
“I think it’s really important work. I think it’s a really cool program and it’s something that the community has an enormous amount of interest in,” Green Bay Conservation Corps Field Supervisor Andy Gilsdorf said.
Many AmeriCorps groups ceased operations directly after the cuts, including Green Bay’s for about a week.
Thanks to the city council’s approval of ARPA funds, Conservation Corps was able to stay afloat for the past five weeks, at a much smaller capacity. But the city’s funding wouldn’t have been enough to keep the Conservation Corps going forever.
“It’s really important that we have the personnel and the funding to keep on projects that we’ve started, so that they don’t just revert back to a pre-Conservation Corps stage,” Gilsdorf said.
When AmeriCorps cuts were announced, Conservation Corps lost three members. They were also in the midst of hiring summer staff, which had to be halted until now.
“We’ve been operating at a pretty low capacity. We would have expected in June to be at about 30 members strong, and currently we’re operating at just those 10 members,” Green Bay Conservation Corps Coordinator Maria Otto said.
Now, with funding being restored, Otto is optimistic they’ll get back to their full capacity — but it will be tough after the long delay.
She said the work they do is important for creating a healthy and resilient ecosystem to help with things like flooding and food production, along with the educational events they host throughout the year.
“It’s really about bringing the community together and getting outside and enjoying what we have to offer here in Green Bay,” Otto said.
Right now, the Conservation Corps is waiting on guidance from AmeriCorps and Serve Wisconsin on how grant funding will be reinstated.
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