Gear to Grow Support of Four Corners School of Outdoor Education

About Four Corners School of Outdoor Education

Founded in 1984, Four Corners School of Outdoor Education (FCS) is a non-profit organization that provides place-based outdoor education programs for more than 76,080 participants, ranging in ages 6 to 90 years old. Based in Monticello, Utah, FCS’s mission is to create lifelong learning experiences about the Colorado Plateau bioregion (Southern Utah, Southwest Colorado, Northwest New Mexico and Northern Arizona) for people of all ages and backgrounds through education, service, adventure, and conservation programs.

Programs include:
1-Canyon Country Youth Corps-an employment, education, and leadership program for primarily Navajo youth ages 14-24 years old, who complete public lands service projects on the Colorado Plateau.
2-Southwest Ed-Ventures-adventure education trips for all ages throughout the Colorado Plateau, whose net income supports the other 3 programs of FCS.
3-The Bioregional Outdoor Education Project-a place-based environmental education training program for all K-8 schools and teachers on the Colorado Plateau.
4-The upcoming Discovery Institute for Conservation Education-a place-based learning center on and about the Colorado Plateau bioregion facilitated by the new campus.

Gear to Grow and Four Corners School of Outdoor Education

First introduced to Gear to Grow at the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow, FCS was one of Gear to Grow’s initial pilot beneficiary programs. Throughout their partnership, Gear to Grow has provided FCS with tents, sleeping bags, dry bags, water shoes, boots, daypacks and apparel. The donations from Gear to Grow have primarily supported FCS’s Canyon Country Youth Corps Program, whose goal is to improve work readiness, employment prospects, and economic independence for youth.

“The ability to receive multiple donations from Gear to Grow has been a great asset to our organization, particularly our Canyon Country Youth Corps Program. These participants are camping for up to six months at a time and are hard on their gear; the additional donations have truly improved our program.”

- Janet Ross, Four Corners School of Outdoor Education
Recent Excursions

River Restoration Crews
The Canyon Country Youth Corps began a multi-year Dolores River Restoration Project in 2009 and an Escalante River Restoration Project in 2010. Both projects aim to restore the rivers back to native health. A group of partners in each case work together to solve the tamarisk infestation problem on the Dolores River and Russian Olive infestation problem on the Escalante River. CCYC and other crews work and train for 12 weeks in the spring and fall of each year. CCYC uses the Gear to Grow donated gear during this time. To date, CCYC has completed 28.5 miles of invasive species removal on the Dolores, Escalante, and Colorado Rivers (613 acres).

The purpose of both of these partnerships is to provide a science-driven strategy to implement tamarisk and Russian olive control and subsequent restoration actions to increase native vegetation abundance in an organized and collaborative manner along the rivers.