AB 688

This bill creates a Wisconsin conservation corps (WCC) program to protect,

enhance, and provide access to Wisconsin's natural heritage and encourage and

enable young people to learn the value of work in a natural setting by providing

employment training and career pathways. The bill directs the Department of

Administration to administer and manage the program or to contract with a

nonprofit corporation, or an institution of higher education, that has demonstrated

experience in grant program administration (manager) to manage and administer

the program. The manager then provides grants to organizations that have

experience in natural resources conservation to engage, train, and supervise work

crews to carry out each project. The bill requires DOA to ensure that projects are

equally distributed across technical college districts to the greatest extent possible,

and to ensure that at least one project is located in each technical college district in

each year.

The bill provides that a WCC project must be designed to carry out a specific

goal within a defined period of time, must be focused on the conservation or

enjoyment of natural resources for environmental conservation, and must have a

specific, beneficial, and physical effect. The project must also be eligible for

AmeriCorps education award matching. Environmental conservation projects may

include new trail construction, trail rehabilitation, invasive species management,

bridge and boardwalk construction, reforestation, timber stand improvement,

stream bank stabilization, erosion control, rain garden installation, prairie

restoration, historical site preservation, recreation site maintenance, wild land fire

hazard reduction and fuels management, lake and stream restoration, boundary

marking, fencing, or landscaping.

A project may be sited only on public land in this state. The bill permits local

governments, institutions of higher education, or nonprofit corporations to sponsor

projects. A project application is then submitted to DOA. The application must

identify the proposed project and the sponsor of the project and provide a detailed

plan for the work on the project. In addition, the application must contain an

enumeration of the number of work crews that will work on the project and an

affirmation as to whether the work crew members would be eligible to participate in

a youth corps program administered by the National and Community Service Board

(NCSB), as well as a plan for training the work crew members, providing

transportation to the project work sites, making available individualized

educational opportunities for work crew members suited to the qualifications,

experience, and needs of the members while they are working on the projects; for

assisting work crew members in making full use of all benefits provided under such

a youth corps program if the project qualifies as a youth corps program; and for

visiting a college campus to familiarize the crew members with application and

enrollment procedures, programs, and course offerings.