March 8, 2018

Raindrops are falling unseasonably late in parts of California. The timing is precarious as thousands of acres of land burned bald by fires in late 2017 are at risk of turning into massive mudslides with each drop of rain that falls.

“It’s why we get the California Conservation Corps out here each year to set out sandbags and rice bales,” said Bob Barilla, Public Works supervisor for Orange County. He recalled the huge impact made years back from the work done by the CCC Corpsmembers “Up where the Trabuco, Black Star and Silverado canyons burned, some spots still got washed out from rain, but where the CCC sandbagged put out bales, it did what it’s supposed to do.”

Please click here for a brief video about the CCC.

Mudslides and flooding are on the minds of many county administrators looking for ways to mitigate the disaster that back-to-back fire and rain storms can bring. Placer County is no stranger to this kind of March storm-madness where a dry winter ends with a torrential transition into spring, accompanied by flooding.

Ken Grim, Placer County’s director of public works knows who to call to minimize the risk of rain turning to floods, “The California Conservation Corps is cost-effective and coordinates well to clear the waterways near bridges so the water flows out, away and downstream.”

The CCC Corpsmembers are hired every year by the county’s flood control district, for more than a decade now, to do stream clearance to prevent flooding. They are also adept at sandbagging, soil stabilization and erosion control – tasks counties are currently finding themselves in need of completing after fire scorched thousands of acres late last year.

“In fact, we have a standing contract to place sandbags ahead of time,” said Melinda Allen, manager of CCC’s Emergency Services Unit. She says Corpsmembers can be deployed immediately when cities and counties contract through the Corps directly rather than going through Office of Emergency Services and waiting days for approval. Allen said if the project falls under federally declared emergency, the county can still be reimbursed.

The CCC has a forty-two-year history of responding to natural and manmade disasters. Governor Jerry Brown founded the Corps during his first term back in 1976 to offer young adults a year of paid service to the State of California.

Corpsmembers must be 18 to 25 years old (veterans up to age 29) and cannot be on probation or parole that would interfere with their ability to travel. If they do not have a high school diploma when they join, Corpsmembers must earn one while in the Corps.

Corpsmembers who successfully complete the program are eligible for up to 8 thousand dollars of scholarship. The skills they learn and exposure to local, state and federal agencies often lead to meaningful jobs.

The motto of the CCC is ‘Hard work, low pay, miserable conditions and more!’ Bruce Saito, CCC’s director said each year, the Corps produces thousands of young men and women with character, credentials and commitment, “They do backbreaking work to build trails, prevent fires, reduce energy consumption, and make California overall an even better place to live.”

Work Corpsmembers are trained to do goes far beyond fighting floods and fires. Counties routinely budget the CCC to build and maintain hiking trails, carry out weed abatement, remove brush and debris, and tackle small but otherwise financially infeasible construction projects.

“The Corps fills an important niche for small to medium-sized projects and (Placer County) can go with a back of the napkin sketch and the Cs simply get to work,” said Placer County Parks Administrator, Andy Fisher.

“If we had to hire journey level labor to hand carry in bag after bag of concrete it would have been cost prohibitive,” Fisher said. And, he added the quality of the work is excellent. “It’s the combination of a good product and a good mission.”

Counties looking to hire a CCC crew for a project can visit ccc.ca.gov or call 800 952-5627.