CCC 50th Media Toolkit

Soundbites

JP Patton, Director – California Conservation Corps

B-Roll

Historic B-Roll:

• Chico, Redding, & Siskiyou Centers: Flood Fighter Training – Nov. 20, 2025
• NOAA Veterans Corps Fisheries Program: Chorro Creek – September 18, 2024

CCC Flickr Account – Features recent project, emergency response, and training opportunities

• 138,000+ Corpsmembers have enrolled in the CCC since 1976
• 86+ million hours of natural resource work
• 14+ million hours of emergency response work
• 25+ million trees planted
• 13,895 miles of backcountry trails built or maintained since 1979
• CCC established by Senate Bill 1575, signed by Governor Jerry Brown on July 7, 1976
• CCC’s sunset clause removed in 1983 by Senate Bill 424, signed by Governor George Deukmejian, making the CCC a permanent state agency
• The CCC completes projects with a public benefit across all 58 of California’s
  counties
• Project partners include local cities, resource conservation districts, area nonprofits,
  counties, state agencies, and federal partners
• The CCC is part of the state’s emergency response operations, and crews have
  responded to support partners on nearly every major fire, flood, earthquake, oil
  spill, pest infestation, and emergency food distribution since our inception
• In the early days, a popular refrain was “Conservation is our middle name” After
  B.T. Collins became director in 1979, he coined the infamous motto: “Hard Work,
  Low Pay, Miserable Conditions”
• In 1983, Director Bud Sheble added the “and more!” to the motto
• In 2024, the CCC retired the motto
• Other taglines over the years include, Get Paid While You Train, A Program That
  Works, Make A Difference In California, and It’s a Great Start in Life, among others
• In 1979, the Backcountry Trails Program was created, sending crews to remote,
  off-the-grid locations deep within national and state parks to complete trail
  construction projects
• In 1982, the CCC expanded into energy-efficiency work with the opening of the
  Stockton Energy Center and a solar training program at the Greenwood Center.
  Over the years, energy programs have also operated at the Placer, Fresno, Norwalk, and
  Vista Centers
• In 1983, the first international exchange took place between the CCC and our
  Canadian partner Katamavik; in the years since the CCC has completed work
  exchanges with partners in Australia, Japan, Greece, Great Britain, Germany,
  Honduras, and Chile in what we now call the Global Corps program
• In 1978, Corpsmembers were able to earn $5,303 per year in the CCC
• Today, Corpsmembers earn a monthly stipend of $2,814 per month
• The first CCC center opened at Camp Radford, a Los Angeles City camp located in the San Bernardino Mountains
• Frist graduating class of the training academy took place in February
• Starting in mid-1977 the CCC accelerated its presence by opening 18 centers in the next 18 months
• In 1982, the CCC opened it’s first non-residential, or satellite, centers in Fresno, central Los Angeles, and San Diego
• In the first years of the CCC, only 18 to 23 year-old’s were eligible to enroll; today 18 to 25 year-olds and military veterans up to age 29 are eligible
• In the 1998-99 Fiscal Year, the CCC’s Corpsmember enrollment number peaked with 2,550 positions; today 1,646 are available statewide