After one year of Trump, is anything left of the American Climate Corps?

Two long years ago, it appeared that the much-anticipated American Climate Corps was finally happening. President Joe Biden had promised to create a green workforce modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s most popular New Deal programs, since he was on the campaign trail. By September 2024, 15,000 young people had joined the American Climate Corps, according to the administration, working to restore landscapes and install solar panels across the country.

It didn’t even last a year. The Biden administration ended the program last January before President Donald Trump returned to the White House, correctly predicting that Trump would take a hammer to anything with the word “climate” in its name.

But even though climate change is no longer on the national agenda and the promise of federal funding has faded, some states have found ways to continue supporting Climate Corps-style work over the past year. Their efforts show what is still politically viable – and under what conditions these initiatives can still succeed – provided local governments and nonprofits find the funds.

Not surprisingly, one of the survivors is California, a state with many climate-friendly initiatives and enough resources to survive a federal drought. “We have stayed the course and are moving full steam ahead, and our climate work has not been affected by the chaos at the federal level,” said Josh Fryday, who leads GO-Serve, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s newly created office of civic service and engagement.

The “chaos” Fryday was referring to? Last spring, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Effectiveness abruptly removed 32,000 AmeriCorps members from their jobs, tutoring children in low-income areas, working at food banks and helping cities recover from weather disasters. It also furloughed 85 percent of the federal service agency’s 500 employees. Although a lawsuit ultimately reinstated the $400 million in grants, much of the damage had already been done: Many programs had been halted or even halted altogether, including some climate and conservation teams.

Thanks to state funding, Fryday’s California Climate Action Corps was safe. The program now has about 400 members across the state working to make homes more fire-resistant, divert food from landfills and organize climate action days for the public. “We hope that over time this will continue to grow based on need and demand,” Fryday said.

The work of environmental services has endured in the state, with the 50-year-old California Conservation Corps still operating with more than 1,500 members. But even with state government support, other programs – environmental and otherwise – were not immune. After April’s budget cuts, AmeriCorps members who were helping Los Angeles residents recover from the fires that ravaged the city were furloughed, and many were unable to complete their terms because they found other work or funds had run out.

This is a story that played out across the country. Some service programs were abandoned, while others avoided using the word “climate” to describe their work; many have limped on despite uncertain funding. American Climate Corps jobs were in blue and red states, rural areas and cities, according to a study released in November. “It shows that this type of work is needed everywhere,” said Dana Fisher, a professor at American University’s School of International Service, whose team mapped the locations of Climate Corps positions.

“You can cancel the Climate Corps, but … a lot of what communities need right now is about responding and preparing for extreme events exacerbated by climate change,” Fisher said.

Today, the work of climate services is likely to continue in response to very specific needs. In western North Carolina, AmeriCorps members continue to contribute to the recovery after Hurricane Helene, clearing storm debris and restoring access to trails and public lands, said Briles Johnson, executive director of VolunteerNC, which oversees service programs in the state.

There may even be room for growth when local demands arise. In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, recently created a task force to address an outbreak of the mountain pine beetle that is killing the state’s ponderosa pines. Warming temperatures and drought have allowed beetle populations to take off, and all the dead trees they leave behind increase the risk of wildfires. Serve Colorado’s conservation teams are expected to help fight the outbreak, supported by funding offered by the state, according to a spokesperson for the state climate department’s work.

State-specific funding appears to be the safest route, but it can be difficult to raise the necessary funds. One model comes from Washington state, which is fueling its new Climate Corps network with profits from the state’s “cap and invest” program that requires polluters to reduce their carbon emissions or buy permits for them at auction. The Washington Climate Corps Network announced nearly $1.5 million in grants in 2025 for 11 different projects across the state, including restoring degraded estuaries to help them sequester carbon and helping communities prepare for extreme heat and smoke from wildfires.

Matt Glazewski, director of the Washington Climate Corps Network, described it as a “small program, but with ambitious goals” aimed at growing a climate workforce and introducing people of all ages to potential climate-friendly careers.

While the American Climate Corps quickly became mired in a partisan fight after Biden proposed billions of dollars to fund it, Glazewski found there was an opportunity to engage Republicans in his state’s agenda. Some grants go to rural areas of Washington state, where terms like “climate action” may not resonate. “I’m not here to wave this flag in a way that people would expect,” Glazewski said. A $200,000 grant from the program will go to the Port of Pend Oreille in northeast Washington along the Idaho border, where workers are converting diesel locomotives to run on cleaner engines.

“You have a deeply conservative community here, who are enthusiastic about doing this because they know it makes sense,” Glazewski said. “They know they have a business model, and once they have the opportunity to install the infrastructure, they invest in it.” He said a few Republican members of the state Legislature support the Washington Climate Corps Network, including state Sen. Shelley Short, who represents Pend Oreille County.

“In this, we are also building a broader coalition and showing that the Climate Corps Network may not be what everyone thinks,” Glazewski said. “We can show them that it can be just about anything: if it makes sense in your community, it’s about mobilizing people to be exposed to employment that is more climate-friendly and part of this new green or blue economy, whatever that can be for you.