If you're looking for a OR related job, this is a good jumping off point.
If you know of other good job opportunities, send them to me at Royalepain@aol.com, and I'll list them on this page. Thanks, and enjoy!
Americorps
There are around 600 state and national programs that are a part of Americorps. With such variety, you can do just about everything! You could work with Habitat For Humanity, local community action groups, the National Forest Service, inner city schools, etc, etc.
The program I'm most interested in is Americorps National Civilian Conservation Corps. You use a campus in one of 6 places across the U.S. as your homebase, and travel around your region doing a slew of different jobs, from helping fight fires, working at a boys and girls club, or creating hiking trails. You get room, board, uniforms, $4,000 in pocket money, and a $4,725 education award voucher. The position is full time for 10 months and for people 18-24. No college is required.
The Average pay for all Americorps programs is between 8 and 15 thousand a year, plus an educational award of almost 5 thousand dollars. To learn more, go to www.Americorps.org
Youth Corps
Almost every state has a youth corps. Most corps will do anything that needs doing, but a few specialize. The California Conservation Corps , for example, focuses on environment and emergency response. The corps puts in over 3 million hours a year in conservation work, emergency assistance, and environmental cleanup. The CCC's Motto: "Hard work, low pay, miserable conditions .... and more!" hasn't stopped more than seventy thousand 18-23 year olds from joining its ranks in the twenty plus years snce it stared. (From: The Uncollege Handbook, Danielle Wood)
Youth corps usually live as a group in the woods or in communal housing for a month or more at a time. Some work on a 10 days on/5 days off schedule or a variant of it.
Go to this website for a list of youth corps around the US: NASCC
Student Conservation Association
The SCA has three main programs: Conservation Associates (6 months - 1 year) Resource Assistants (12 - 16 weeks) and a sort of youth corps conservation crew for highschoolers. (4 - 6 weeks)
The highscool program is a non-paid volunteer program, while the other two pay you a small stipend. All three provide for your room and board.
With the SCA you can patrol the backcountry of Alaska's parks, put on a geological talk for visitors at Glacier National Park, or count whales off the coast of Maine. Those types of jobs and more can be found at Student Conservation Association
Green Mountain Club
As part of the GMC, you could be a summit caretaker or in the backcountry, work on a trail crew, or on a trail patrol. You would be paid a little each week, and have your room and board taken care of.
NOLS is a world renowned program that teaches a variety of outdoor skills. They have courses that range from a week, to a semester. The classes are run anywhere from Patagonia and Chile, to the deserts of Arizona. Somebody has to lead those courses - why not you?
NOLS requires all leader hopefulls to go through a Leadership course. The price tag for all of their courses are hefty, but there is financial aid. Go to NOLS to learn more.
Outward Bound
Outward Bound is a lot like NOLS. They lead courses on a variety of skills all over the place. They're also generally less expensive.
If you're into working with adjudicated youth, Outward Bound has a seperate program to bring kids into the wilderness, help them sort out things, and break their bad habits.
Willing Workers On Organic Farms
If you want to travel around the world seeking out the best spots for your favorite recreation, you might want to consider WWOOF to help you get there.
WWOOF connects you with over 600 organic farms worldwide who want temporary help. It could be for a few days or a few months. Organic gardening is hard, dirty work, so only consider this if you like that sort of thing. In exchange for being grunt labor, you get fed, a place to stay, and some places give you a little money.
Likely jobs you'll be doing are weeding, fencing, building, milking, planting, etc.
Joining costs about 20 bucks. You'll recieve a giant listing of all the farms who participate. You take it from there with contacting the farms and finding ones you want to work on. More at: WWOOF
Gear testing
If you like backpacking, gear testing might be for you. Companies want lots of feedback for their gear, praise and problems alike. You could approach companies directly about donating you some free gear. They're more likely to do this if you will be using their stuff for an adventure like thru-hking the appalachian trail, or if you'll talk about how great their things are, on your website.
You could also join a gear testing group on Yahoo groups. Requirements for getting free gear from Backpacker Gear Test group are posted on their front page, located here: BGT
