Maintenance Action Team Benefits

Training the Next Generation

Maintenance team in Massachusetts replaces the wooden balustrade on the earthen terrace in front of the Longfellow House at Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. Photo Credit: NPS

Training the Next Generation

MATs are teaching specialized skills to a new generation of trade, preservation, and facility specialists and public land stewards. MATs serve as a valuable training ground for in-house knowledge, skill, and expertise. By bringing together MAT staff with a variety of skill sets who support a broad range of repair work, MAT staff can learn on-the-ground from each other about the foundations of a trade that will prepare them for a future career in the field.
Efficiency

Maintenance workers from the Historic Preservation Training Center replace shake shingles on a historic ranger cabin at Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota. Photo Credit: NPS

Efficiency

NPS and FWS can rapidly mobilize MATs to address DM&R needs across the country. Because MATs are composed of in-house FWS and NPS staff, teams are nimble and rapidly mobilize to respond to maintenance needs, minimizing administrative costs and set-up times. Since MATs are geographically based, they can reduce the need for redundant specialized skill sets at sites within the same area. In addition, MATs do not require procurement or contract awards, streamlining and reducing the time to deploy.
Partnership and Collaboration

Montana Conservation Youth Corps (MCC) team members work on repairs to tread surface and erosion control features at stairs near the summit of Buck Hill trail at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Photo Credit: NPS

Partnership and Collaboration

MATs provide opportunities to partner with a variety of programs and organizations. Many MAT activities at NPS collaborate with local workforce development programs, such as youth conservation corps, veteran service corps, and public lands corps, as well as with NPS volunteers and interns, to execute maintenance work. In addition, MATs collaborate with existing bureau programs at Interior to complete more specialized MAT activities. For example, MATs can deploy NPS’s Historic Preservation Training Center teams to complete historic preservation-focused MAT activities.
Ability to Perform Work in Remote Places

Installation of the new Moose Meadows Boardwalk at Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Photo Credit: USFWS

Ability to Perform Work in Remote Places

MATs help address DM&R needs at sites in remote locations. Because MATs are flexible and regionally based, teams can perform work in locations where the costs of mobilizing third-party construction contractors may otherwise be prohibitive, allowing GAOA LRF funding to address DM&R needs even at difficult to reach locations.
Wide Reach

MAT members replace a water control structure at St. Croix Wetland Management District in Wisconsin. Photo Credit: USFWS

Wide Reach

MATs perform activities across the country to improve a wide range of public lands sites. MATs address smaller DM&R needs at national parks and national wildlife refuges, allowing the majority of GAOA LRF funding to be used for large scale projects that are otherwise out of reach with annual appropriations. The ability of MATs to conduct DM&R work at more sites broadens the scope and benefits of the GAOA LRF program across the country.