BLM-CO Veterans Conservation Initiative

The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Colorado State Office of BLM, and cooperating organizations have been working as partners on mutually beneficial projects for several years to engage and educate veterans regarding natural resources management and public lands stewardship. The BLM-CO utilizes a number of organizations that employ and empower veterans to transition to civilian life by leveraging their leadership experience to meet pressing conservation needs on public lands. The rate of unemployment for veterans continues to lag behind the average for nonveterans, both nationally and locally. In Colorado, unemployment rate for veterans is 7 percent compared with the overall rate of 4.7 percent. To address this issue, the BLM engages trained, returning veterans to work on outdoor-conservation projects on public lands. Additionally, BLM seeks to utilize veterans as interns to assist with a variety of recreational and natural resources projects. This program fosters a natural resource ethic while providing learning and job skills augmenting a veteran's military service. The BLM is interested in working with organizations that employ and train veterans to complete a number of conservation and intern projects. This project will provide veterans the opportunity to gain valuable job experience and educational opportunities while they transition to civilian life.