CCC provides critical assistance fighting L.A. fires

OPINION – Jared Martinez is one of hundreds of young men and women from the California Conservation Corps to be deployed to Southern California while the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires raged out of control. Preventing and responding to fires have been key missions for the Corps since its inception nearly 50 years ago, and as corpsmembers witnessed the overwhelming catastrophe before them, this critical assignment came into sharp focus.

“I do think about the impact,” Martinez says during a brief break. “On the drive over here, I saw all the homes that burned down. It’s really sad seeing that, but knowing that I’m making a difference and doing my part makes me feel good.”

Xavier Silva, like Martinez and the others, fully expected the miserable conditions and long hours of dangerous work as they helped local, state and federal partners in responding to the blazes. It’s in their DNA. But it has been worth it. “We’re tired and we’re exhausted, but there are people losing everything out there. We want to help out,” Silva says.

Silva and Martinez are part of a contingent of corpsmembers from Monterey County. Others have come from CCC centers at Fortuna – more than 600 miles away – Lake Tahoe, Auburn, Stockton and elsewhere throughout the state. In all, more than 400 corpsmembers — 18-to-25-year-olds trained in wildland firefighting and base camp support – have spent nearly 200,000 hours on the job responding to the deadly fires.

Separately, corpsmembers have spent another 100,000 hours to thwart the after effects by installing erosion and runoff barriers at nearly 14,000 properties to prevent mud and toxic runoff from entering the watershed and ocean. They’re also helping with property cleanup.

Since its inception, the CCC has been the hidden gem in California’s natural resource work, providing an astounding 81 million hours of tree planting, fish habitat improvement, back country trail construction and maintenance, rural and urban park improvements and energy conservation – on top of critical emergency response on nearly every California natural disaster.

“We’re trained to prioritize life, environment and property,” says Jessica Ugalde, a corpsmember based in Placer County.

The CCC puts young people and the environment together to benefit both. Corpsmembers gain a work ethic, real-world experience and valuable skills while working emergency response, which prepare them for careers in structural and wildland firefighting, emergency response, environmental protection and public service. Every year, hundreds earn their high school diplomas and graduate with a career path as they become California’s next generation of conservationists.

As these young men and women work to build a resilient California future, the CCC Foundation invests in the corpsmembers, as well, by creating opportunities to learn new skills through work projects or special training facilities. The Foundation, a non-profit public benefit organization, has helped fund a wide range of industry-recognized training and certification courses – from energy conservation, EMT, Arborist and Chainsaw training to best practices in responding to emergencies involving hazardous wastes.  It offers scholarships and has underwritten annual graduation celebrations for thousands of corpsmembers who earned their high school diplomas by going to school at night after long, hard days of physical outdoor work.

Over the years, some Foundation support has been more personal, such as helping a corpsmember with a plane ticket home to attend a mother’s funeral, or funding the removal of gang affiliation tattoos as corpsmembers choose a new path forward. The Foundation has helped with corpsmembers who have suffered financial losses due to natural disasters. Sometimes it’s as simple as clean socks on the fire line, and sometimes it’s as big as financially helping CCC firefighters who were themselves hurt by the fires.

Back in Los Angeles, while working on a crew removing over-grown brush and creating fuel breaks, Kayla Morua, who is part of Fortuna crew, reflects on her training and mission: “You don’t really have a good idea of the feeling or how far you can push yourself and your capabilities until you’re out on the fire line actually doing the work. And it’s even easier to do when there’s a very important purpose behind it.” Adds Brooke Montano of Sacramento, “It’s hard work, but you know it’s part of the job, and you know we have to do this to protect the people…I’m happy and I know my family is proud of me back home.”

Steve Swatt is a longtime Sacramento reporter and political analyst. He is a board member of the California Conservation Corps Foundation (www.cccfoundation.net)