Tuesday, May 22, 2012 • California Conservation Corps Veterans Crews complete training, working on fire reduction efforts
Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, May 22, 2012 edition of the Lassen County Times.
Fifty military veterans, members of four all-veterans California Conservation Corps crews, are now working in California national forests on fuel reduction and fire prevention efforts.
The veterans, based with the CCC in Auburn, Lake Tahoe, San Bernardino and San Diego, recently completed a week-long training under the direction of the U.S. Forest Service
The CCC/ USFS partnership is aimed at easing the veterans’ transition from military service to the civilian workforce and can lead to potential forestry and firefighting jobs through the Forest Service’s Wildland Fire Apprenticeship Program.
Funding for the crews is provided by the Forest Service through the CCC/USFS partnership as well as from the operating budget of the California State Assembly through the leadership of Speaker John A. Pérez.
“I am very proud the Assembly was able to help make the recent training a success by providing funds to the Conservation Corps through cutting our own budget,” said Pérez. “These soldiers, who are willing to risk their lives for our country, deserve to have every opportunity to find a quality, decent job that lets them provide for their family, and this program does exactly that.”
The CCC hired its first three veterans crews in 2011. Many of the participants have been hired by land management agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service and California State Parks.
The California Conservation Corps is a state agency hiring young men and women for a year of natural resource work and emergency response. Since it was established in 1976 by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., more than 115,000 young people have been a part of the program.
