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Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-110

§1725 Resource Assistants

Title 16 › CHAPTER 37 — YOUTH CONSERVATION CORPS AND PUBLIC LANDS CORPS › SUBCHAPTER II — PUBLIC LANDS CORPS › § 1725

Last updated Sep 23, 2026|Official source

Summary

Allows the Secretary to place resource assistants to do research or protect natural resources. People must be at least 17 years old. The Secretary can hire them outside normal civil service rules. The Secretary should prefer college students or recent graduates and try to include women and students from historically Black, Hispanic, and Native American schools. When suitable nonprofits can help, the Secretary may use them to recruit and place assistants. Those nonprofits must pay 25 percent of each participant’s cost from private funds and must give the land-managing agency a yearly report on the program’s size, quality, and the value of the assistants’ work.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §1725

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Authorization
The Secretary may provide individual placements of resource assistants to carry out research or resource protection activities on behalf of the Secretary. To be eligible for selection as a resource assistant, an individual must be at least 17 years of age. The Secretary may select resource assistants without regard to the civil service and classification laws, rules, or regulations of the United States. The Secretary shall give a preference to the selection of individuals who are enrolled in an institution of higher education or are recent graduates from an institution of higher education, with particular attention given to ensure full representation of women and participants from historically black, Hispanic, and Native American schools.
(b)Use of existing nonprofit organizations
Whenever one or more existing nonprofit organizations can provide, in the judgment of the the Secretary, appropriate recruitment and placement services to fulfill the requirements of this section, the Secretary may implement this section through such existing organizations. Participating nonprofit organizations shall contribute to the expenses of providing and supporting the resource assistants, through private sources of funding, at a level equal to 25 percent of the total costs of each participant in the Resource Assistant program who has been recruited and placed through that organization. Any such participating nonprofit conservation service organization shall be required, by the respective land managing agency, to submit an annual report evaluating the scope, size, and quality of the program, including the value of work contributed by the Resource Assistants, to the mission of the agency.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2019—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 116–9 substituted “The Secretary may provide individual placements of resource assistants to carry out research or resource protection activities on behalf of the Secretary.” for “The Secretary is authorized to provide individual placements of resource assistants with any Federal land managing agency under the jurisdiction of the Secretary to carry out research or resource protection activities on behalf of the agency.” 2005—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 109–154, § 2(g)(3)(A), substituted “Secretary is” for “Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture are each”, “the Secretary to carry out” for “such Secretary to carry out”, “Secretary may” for “Secretaries may”, and “Secretary shall” for “Secretaries shall”. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 109–154, § 2(g)(3)(B), substituted “the Secretary, appropriate” for “Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, appropriate”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective Oct. 1, 1993, see section 123 of Pub. L. 103–82, set out as an

Effective Date

of 1993 Amendment note under section 1701 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 1725

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Sep 23, 2026

Release point: 119-110