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San Luis Obispo Tribune
Conservation Corps could disappear under governor's current
budget proposal
by David Sneed January 15,2009
The California Conservation Corps, an agency with a 33-year presence in San Luis Obispo, is
facing a death sentence under the governor’s current budget proposal.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed eliminating the entire agency as a way to help cut the
state’s $42 billion deficit. The move would save an estimated $17 million.
The agency hires young adults who aren’t college-bound and puts them to work responding to
emergencies, such as wildfires and earthquakes, and performing environmental enhancement
work. Its first residential camp opened in San Luis Obispo in 1976.
Local land management agencies, which use the majority of the corps’ services, say its loss
would be a severe setback. The federal Forest Service, State Parks Department, municipalities
and land conservation groups hire work crews from the corps to perform a variety of work, such
as trail building and stream restoration.
The agency’s San Luis Obispo facility is at Camp San Luis Obispo and has a budget of $3 million.
It has 80 resident corps members and 15 employees who work as administrators and
supervisors.
The local camp recently got a contract to install solar panels at Montaña de Oro State Park, a
project that will allow the park to go off the electrical grid.
Brian Stark, director of the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, describes the corps
crews as “foot soldiers saving the environment.”
“They are a vital service to the state of California,” he said. “Cutting the whole agency is
misplaced.”
Eliminating the corps runs contrary to the national trend of creating new jobs programs as a way
to stimulate the economy, Stark said.
“It seems kind of odd that when the federal government is spending money to create jobs, we
are laying people off,” he said.
Corps members are paid minimum wage in exchange for job training. They are a cost-effective
resource for labor-intensive work, such as creek restoration, said Neil Havlik, natural resources
manager for San Luis Obispo.
“If they were not around, I don’t know who or what we would use,” he said. “Losing them would
be quite a hit.”
In two previous budget crises, the San Luis Obispo facility has been threatened with closure.
This is the first time the entire agency has been threatened.
According to the budget proposal, the agency would be dismantled with as much of its workload
as possible transferred to 12 certified nonprofit conservation corps. These local corps are in
urban areas; the one closest to San Luis Obispo County is in Fresno.
Local conservation corps would be able to pick up some of the slack but they don’t have the
training and equipment to perform many of the key functions that the state agency does. These
include traveling nationwide to fight fires and camping out to work in the backcountry, a process
the corps calls spiking.
Spiking is a specialty of the San Luis Obispo camp. That group has had a hand in building just
about every popular hiking trail in the county, including the extensive boardwalk network in
Cambria and the elephant seal viewing area at Piedras Blancas.
“We’re a cost-effective way to do that kind of work,” said Jimmy Camp, corps spokesman.
Bruce Saito heads the local conservation corps in Los Angeles. He said a new local corps would
have to be established in San Luis Obispo to take on the work currently being done by the state
agency.
“These are difficult times,” he said. “We are looking for a better solution.”
Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, is a supporter of the corps. He said the state
is facing such a severe budget deficit it would be premature to rule anything out, including the
elimination of popular programs.
“Obviously, it would be a real loss to see this great organization disappear due to the budget
crisis,” he said. “Having said that, everything is on the table now.”
In addition to being a statewide workforce, the corps is a job training organization that helps
youth learn work skills. “The corps is a good program, and it’s good for the people who are in it,”
Havlik said. “They learn work habits, and they learn about the environment.”
Statewide, the corps hires more than 3,000 people annually. The San Luis Obispo camp is one of
seven residential facilities. The agency also has 20 nonresidential work centers where members
live at home, including one in Santa Maria.
Conservation Corps could disappear under governor's current
budget proposal
by David Sneed January 15,2009
The California Conservation Corps, an agency with a 33-year presence in San Luis Obispo, is
facing a death sentence under the governor’s current budget proposal.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed eliminating the entire agency as a way to help cut the
state’s $42 billion deficit. The move would save an estimated $17 million.
The agency hires young adults who aren’t college-bound and puts them to work responding to
emergencies, such as wildfires and earthquakes, and performing environmental enhancement
work. Its first residential camp opened in San Luis Obispo in 1976.
Local land management agencies, which use the majority of the corps’ services, say its loss
would be a severe setback. The federal Forest Service, State Parks Department, municipalities
and land conservation groups hire work crews from the corps to perform a variety of work, such
as trail building and stream restoration.
The agency’s San Luis Obispo facility is at Camp San Luis Obispo and has a budget of $3 million.
It has 80 resident corps members and 15 employees who work as administrators and
supervisors.
The local camp recently got a contract to install solar panels at Montaña de Oro State Park, a
project that will allow the park to go off the electrical grid.
Brian Stark, director of the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, describes the corps
crews as “foot soldiers saving the environment.”
“They are a vital service to the state of California,” he said. “Cutting the whole agency is
misplaced.”
Eliminating the corps runs contrary to the national trend of creating new jobs programs as a way
to stimulate the economy, Stark said.
“It seems kind of odd that when the federal government is spending money to create jobs, we
are laying people off,” he said.
Corps members are paid minimum wage in exchange for job training. They are a cost-effective
resource for labor-intensive work, such as creek restoration, said Neil Havlik, natural resources
manager for San Luis Obispo.
“If they were not around, I don’t know who or what we would use,” he said. “Losing them would
be quite a hit.”
In two previous budget crises, the San Luis Obispo facility has been threatened with closure.
This is the first time the entire agency has been threatened.
According to the budget proposal, the agency would be dismantled with as much of its workload
as possible transferred to 12 certified nonprofit conservation corps. These local corps are in
urban areas; the one closest to San Luis Obispo County is in Fresno.
Local conservation corps would be able to pick up some of the slack but they don’t have the
training and equipment to perform many of the key functions that the state agency does. These
include traveling nationwide to fight fires and camping out to work in the backcountry, a process
the corps calls spiking.
Spiking is a specialty of the San Luis Obispo camp. That group has had a hand in building just
about every popular hiking trail in the county, including the extensive boardwalk network in
Cambria and the elephant seal viewing area at Piedras Blancas.
“We’re a cost-effective way to do that kind of work,” said Jimmy Camp, corps spokesman.
Bruce Saito heads the local conservation corps in Los Angeles. He said a new local corps would
have to be established in San Luis Obispo to take on the work currently being done by the state
agency.
“These are difficult times,” he said. “We are looking for a better solution.”
Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, is a supporter of the corps. He said the state
is facing such a severe budget deficit it would be premature to rule anything out, including the
elimination of popular programs.
“Obviously, it would be a real loss to see this great organization disappear due to the budget
crisis,” he said. “Having said that, everything is on the table now.”
In addition to being a statewide workforce, the corps is a job training organization that helps
youth learn work skills. “The corps is a good program, and it’s good for the people who are in it,”
Havlik said. “They learn work habits, and they learn about the environment.”
Statewide, the corps hires more than 3,000 people annually. The San Luis Obispo camp is one of
seven residential facilities. The agency also has 20 nonresidential work centers where members
live at home, including one in Santa Maria.
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Friends of the
Save-the-CCC
Campaign
-- Partial List --
Save-the-CCC
Campaign
-- Partial List --
- Paul Carrillo - Chair, Friends of
CCC - John Van de Kamp, Former
Attorney General, State of CA - Herb Perry -Professor Emeritus
Economics,CSUS & member of
Civilian Conservation Corps - Bruce Saito -Executive Director
Los Angeles Conservation Corps
& President o California
Association of Local Corps - Ian Kim, Director Green Collar
Campaign of Ella Baker Center
for Human Rights - Brian Stark - Director, Land
Conservancy of San Luis Obispo - Barbara O'connor, Ph.D., Dir. of
Institute of Study of Politics &
Media, CSUS - Bud Sheble - Former Director of
the California Conservation
Corps Gov. Dukemejian - Tom Mertens, Board of Directors,
League to Save Lake Tahoe - Susie Lange, Deputy
Superintendent Department of
Education - Rick Hawley, Executive Director
– Green Space Cambria Land
Trust - Bill Wilson, Former Chairman of
the Board, Tahoe-Baikal Institute - Robert L. (Griff) Griffiths, Co-
Founder, National Association of
Civilian Conservation Corps
Alumni - Robert Burkhardt - Head of
School, Eagle Rock School &
former Chief Deputy CCC