History of EarthCorps
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Cascadia Quest
EarthCorps has grown steadily since its origin as an all-volunteer effort in the early 1990s. EarthCorps has won acclaim as a global leader in environmental restoration, service education, and volunteer engagement. By partnering with allied organizations, EarthCorps expanded and evolved, twice changing its name. These are a few historical highlights.
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1993: Returned Peace Corps volunteer Dwight Wilson decides to extend the Peace Corps mission to create a more peaceful world through voluntary service. His idea is to bring international youth together to work on tangible environmental projects in the Cascades bioregion stretching from Vancouver, Washington to Vancouver, British Columbia. He founds Cascadia Quest, an organization of 40 volunteers. During three weeks each summer, young people from around the world gather to plant trees in this unique bioregion.
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1995: King County, the county surrounding Seattle, launches a public-private partnership with the organization that transforms it into a professional training program for young adults with year-round operations. Work is focused primarily in Puget Sound and in the nearby Cascade mountains. Cascadia Quest takes on the additional name of King County World Conservation Corps and begins partnering with dozens of other government agencies, businesses, schools and community organizations.
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Three hands hold a pulaski, symbol of the conservation movement. Unfortunately, the tool was sometimes misconstrued as an ax.
1999: To eliminate confusion over its dual name, the organization coins a new name that conveys its commitment to environmental service and global understanding: EarthCorps. The organization engages large numbers of volunteers, with an emphasis on youth in schools and urban neighborhoods. A partnership with Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust involves 5,000 volunteers in planting 226,000 trees. Programs include summer experiences for teens in wilderness areas, and two AmeriCorps crews managed by EarthCorps. Over the next four years, EarthCorps intensifies cooperation with program alumni overseas, leading to volunteer restoration projects in Guatamala, Mexico, and the Philippines. EarthCorps cements its position as an innovator in urban restoration by launching an "Ivy Out" campaign to eradicate invasive plants in Seattle's parks and open spaces.
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2004: EarthCorps eliminates its beloved but confusing logo. By this point, the name EarthCorps has become widely recognized as a community leader with broad professional expertise. In cooperation with the City of Seattle and Cascade Land Conservancy, EarthCorps embarks on the Green Seattle Partnership, one of the largest urban re-greening efforts in history. Its goal is to revive 3,700 acres of dying forests in the city's parks. EarthCorps manages up to 75 staff and participants and 10,000 volunteers (ages 8-80) per year in projects ranging from maintaining trails to restoring complex stream and shoreline eco-systems.
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2009: EarthCorps joins forces with Seattle Urban Nature, a premier mapping and monitoring organization, creating EarthCorps Science and expanding the breadth of professional services available to area communities such as vegetation management planning, street tree surveys and experimental design.
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2011 Long-time partners Friends of the Hylebos and EarthCorps join forces, expanding environmental stewardship efforts in south King County and Pierce County, Washington. With an office in Federal Way's Dumas Bay, EarthCorps-FOH continues a legacy of working to preserve and restore 745 contiguous acres along a unique and wonderful waterway extending from the West Hylebos Wetlands to Puget Sound.