Beaver Creek Reserve hopeful AmeriCorps funding will continue

FALL CREEK, Wis. (WEAU) – The future of AmeriCorps may be looking up. At the end of April, the Trump Administration made major cuts to the group. Then just last week, a federal judge blocked those cuts. There’s still some uncertainty about the future but there’s also optimism.

At Beaver Creek Reserve, learning opportunities are all over.

“There’s like water and animals everywhere,” Archer Mose, an eight-year-old, said.

Learning opportunities are one of the organization’s priorities.

“Having an opportunity for parents to come out here, have their kids play, just be kids, get away from the screens, share, interact, problem-solve. All of these nature nooks and play areas are super fun.” Erik Keisler, the executive director of Beaver Creek Reserve, said. “We were able to reach our mission of connecting people with nature infinitely by having these young professionals come out.”

Young professionals including six AmeriCorps members were left in limbo after federal cuts.

“We typically raise about $75,000 a year just to help with our mission and the community came out in such a powerful and forceful way,” Keisler said. “We raised over $120,000 in a month.”

The community raised that money to support the AmeriCorps members.

“If we get the AmeriCorps program back and it’s not appealed, it will be wonderful,” Keisler said. “If it doesn’t, thank you to our community who stepped up in such a powerful way and helped us have an insurance policy that these young people will have the summer that they were hoping for.”

Keisler said they will hold onto the funds until they know more about the future.

“If AmeriCorps funding does get reinstated as I hope, we will probably create an endowment that other people can continue to give and that funding will go to support our AmeriCorps program for decades to come,” Keisler said.

If it doesn’t get reinstated, Keisler said the organization will have to take up the large cost.

“If the lawsuit gets appealed, we will have to figure out what to do for the 2026-2027 school year and that is the hardest thing to predict,” Keisler said. “It costs so much more to do this program out of pocket.”

Keisler said Beaver Creek Reserve doesn’t want to leave its mission of connecting and educating the community about nature to chance. He said they’ve gotten very few details after the judge made the ruling. He said they are waiting for more information from AmeriCorps nationally.

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