OUR IMPACT
Americans love recreating on the water, and when they do – it’s most likely on a lake or waterway managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the largest provider of water-based recreation in the country! The Corps Foundation is the only nationwide nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to supporting our nation’s lakes, rivers and the lands surrounding them. The Corps Foundation works to connect contributors, businesses, communities and “Friends” organizations to benefit visitors and help ensure healthy lakes and waterways for current and future generations.
The Corps Foundation is excited to share their 2025 Annual Report. Select the link to read about our accomplishments in the last year. Your membership enables the work we do and we hope you’ll continue to support us and follow our work in the years ahead. Thank you for your support! Click here for the full report.
HOW WE ARE HELPING
Supporting Recreation
Did you know that USACE operates and manages over 430 recreation sites and 12 million acres of land and waters in 42 states? Over 270 million visitors annually enjoy the recreation activities at these sites, and their tourism dollars support local, mostly rural, gateway communities. Federal funding for boating and fishing facilities and management has declined in spite of increased public demand. LEARN MORE…
Donations and memberships to the Corps Foundation provide financial support to improve programs and facilities that directly benefit the public.
Stewarding Public Lands
We partner with agencies, organizations and local community efforts to sustain operations, improve recreational facilities, preserve natural and cultural resources and enhance the visitor experience. The Corps Foundation pursues a variety of fundraising, and grant opportunities to help keep USACE public lands open to the public, support the outdoor recreation economy and leverage public-private resources.
Education and Advocacy
The Corps Foundation supports USACE and the efforts of their employees and volunteers to educate the visiting public in ways that promote safe and sustainable use of lands and waters managed by USACE. The Corps Foundation was instrumental in developing and promoting the award-winning Life Jackets Worn…Nobody Mourns campaign. Free campaign materials are available for at PleaseWearIt.com and by following Please Wear It on Facebook and Instagram.
Water Safety
The Corps Foundation educates and supports the visiting public and volunteers to promote safe and sustainable use of Corps lands and waters. Visitor safety is the #1 goal when using lakes and waterways managed by USACE. The Corps Foundation supported the award-winning “Life Jackets Worn…Nobody Mourns” campaign for water safety with over $1.7 Million in grant funds from 2014-2025. Free campaign materials and resources can be found at PleaseWearIt.com.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR WORK
The Corps Foundation advocates for increased funding to address operational needs, unfunded maintenance and infrastructure restoration. We advocate for policy changes to increase opportunities for partnering, and leverage public-private resources. We work to build a case for stakeholder support by communicating the limitations of Federal Funding and the importance of partnerships to help meet public demand.
Why Join
People join the Corps Foundation to help keep access available to their favorite lake or waterway. Your financial support benefits the parks, and the volunteers who dedicate their service to maintaining water recreation for everyone. JOIN US…
HOW YOU CAN HELP
The Corps Foundation uses 100% of your membership and donation funds to directly support education programs, stewardship projects and contribute toward partnership opportunities. Americans are enjoying their public lands more than ever before. In fact, outdoor recreation now comprises over 2% of the American economy. Despite this demand, public lands agencies, including the US Army Corps of Engineers, continue to face reduced Federal funding that could impact your access to lands and waters of the US.
Your financial support helps Corps projects and their friends groups connect, grow, and increase their capacity to fulfill the Corps’ natural resource education mission on lakes and waterways across America.
Advocate for America’s Waterways!
Advocacy Toolkit PDF
Advocacy Toolkit XLSX
See our latest advocacy efforts here.
Water Water Everywhere
Thanks to the Corps, there are countless parks at the many lakes and waterways. Click on the map to find your favorite.
The Corps Foundation was given a free full-page advertisement in the 2026 USA TODAY CORPS OF ENGINEERS SPECIAL EDITION publication honoring 250 years of service to the nation. Read more here
Please join us in recognizing project volunteer Gracie Phillips who has been honored with being awarded the Volunteer Excellence Coin by USACE Staff. Gracie joined the Rivers Project in 2023 as a Student Conservation Association intern and is in her third internship term with this Project, having dedicated 2,880 hours (and counting) assisting the Environmental Stewardship team. She has supported habitat management on hundreds of acres of federal land along the Mississippi and Lower Illinois Rivers. This has ranged from timber stand improvement activities, prescribed burning, planting, seed collection, invasive species treatment, and greenhouse operation. Her knowledge has expanded throughout the past three years and continues to grow due in part to her passion for natural resource management, but also her appetite for learning. She takes the initiative to learn new skills, from using a chainsaw to utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map invasive species.
This can be easily observed through her work with the Rivers Project Greenhouse, where she has been tasked with daily operation since spring 2025. She has helped to grow over 12,000 native plants for the restoration and enhancement of prairie and pollinator habitat. This would not have been possible without the hundreds of hours she has dedicated to germinating and transplanting seedlings, regulating greenhouse conditions and irrigation, monitoring plant health and growth, and general upkeep of the facility.
Gracie has become an invaluable member to the Stewardship team and earned recognition for her hard work from our Project office, partner organizations, and the District Commander. Gracie's exceptional dedication makes her more than deserving of this Corps Foundation Volunteer Excellence Coin.
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The Corps Foundation supports USACE rangers and joins you in commemorating World Ranger Day.
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Throwback Thursday. This story is from Karla Zeutenhorst. "We all have stories of encounters with wildlife. I have always been fascinated by all things furry, feathery, slimy, wet, slithery, and crawly. I run towards these creatures, not away. One day while working at Gavin's Point Dam I got a call about a snapping turtle on a campsite. The two rangers in the park were not comfortable dealing with it so the boss and I went to help. When we got there, everyone was standing around trying to figure out how to move the turtle. This was not a particularly large turtle so I simply grabbed a stick and stuck it in front of the turtle, allowed it to bite the stick and then picked it up by the tail and moved it. The other rangers, all men, just looked at me like I was crazy. I have rescued many snapping turtles from harm before and since."
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The Corps Foundation was given a free full-page advertisement in the 2026 USA TODAY CORPS OF ENGINEERS SPECIAL EDITION publication honoring 250 years of service to the nation. Our ad in this special publication will give us some much needed visibility to many thousands of Corps of Engineers personnel and the many organizations that work with USACE. Our ad is on page 69 of this impressive publication. Link: usatodayspecial-va.newsmemory.com/?special=Army+Corps+of+Engineers&date=20260527
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Throwback Thursday.
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This time we're going to go back to the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. The Corps of Engineers played a huge role in this endeavor and Jeannine Nauss took on the task of lead author of the after action report. She also was a key leader of the entire event. If you're not familiar with this event, it's probably the largest endeavor that the Corps of Engineers, Natural Resources, and Ranger staff ever took on. There were years of planning as well as years of reenacting the expedition. If you're familiar with it, the referenced document might bring back some good memories. If you're not familiar with it, we strongly suggest you look it over to see what's possible.
Source: NRM Gateway (.mil)
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