USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is celebrating National Volunteer Week April 19-25, 2025 by thanking and honoring its Earth Team volunteers for their service to conservation.

Earth Team is the agency’s volunteer workforce, and nationally, in fiscal year 2019, more than 42,287 people donated 324,744 hours of service to NRCS valued at over $8.2 million. In Texas, there were 1,449 volunteers who donated more than 8,248 hours to NRCS valued at $209,753.

“Volunteers work closely with our staff, and they play an important role in our state’s conservation work,” said Drenda Williams, acting state conservationist for Texas NRCS. “Over the last 35 years, many of our volunteers in Texas have become NRCS employees who are working to improve the environment not only for today but for the next generation.”

Earth Team is a program that partners volunteers with NRCS employees. It was created in 1985 and offers many opportunities to individuals 14 and older who are interested in volunteering to improve the nation’s natural resources. Earth Team volunteers help NRCS conservationists provide private landowners and others a range of services from conservation technical assistance to teaching and generating awareness about conservation through community projects.

Earth Team Volunteers allow NRCS to stretch available resources and help put additional conservation practices on the ground. Volunteer efforts help improve land and wildlife habitat and contribute to cleaner water and air for everyone.

For more information about the Earth Team Volunteer Program, visit our state and national web pages or by calling (toll-free) 888-526-3227.