(a) There is created within the department the Georgia Youth Conservation Corps.

(b) The purposes and objectives of the corps authorized by this chapter shall be to:

(1) Encourage and develop work skills, discipline, cooperation, and educational opportunities for corps members;

(2) Conserve, rehabilitate, and enhance the state's natural, historic, environmental, and recreational resources;

(3) Develop the state's youth resources through meaningful work experiences and training;

(4) Make outdoor and historic resources of the state available for public enjoyment;

(5) Assist agencies of the state and its political subdivisions in carrying out statutory assignments with limited funding resources;

(6) Provide needed public services in both urban and rural settings;

(7) Protect air, fish, forest, land, water, and wildlife;

(8) Help maintain and improve botanical gardens, historic sites, libraries, museums, parks, parkways, refuges, trails, zoos, and other recreational investments;

(8.1) Assist in residential home improvement weatherization projects having the purpose of reducing energy consumption for home heating and cooling, to the extent authorized by subsection (a.1) of Code Section 12-11-8;

(9) Aid agricultural, fishing, forestry, and tourist industries;

(10) Provide job training for young men and women to act as a stepladder to permanent employment;

(11) Help eradicate fire ants; and

(12) Cooperate specifically with state conservation agencies, the United States Forest Service and the Soil Conservation Service of the federal Department of Agriculture, and with the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service of the federal Department of Interior.

(c) The board is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations not inconsistent with this chapter for the implementation and operation of the corps program.