Backcountry
Backcountry Trails

California Conservation Corps (CCC)

Fortuna, CA
United States

(707) 599-1601
[email protected]

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The Backcountry Trails Program started in 1979 and is the longest running special program of the California Conservation Corps. Each year, six crews are sent into the backcountry of California's public lands to perform critical trail restoration to ensure safe access to some of the most beautiful places on Earth. They learn time-tested skills such as dry-stone masonry, rough timber-carpentry, and how to safely open trails from windfall, rockslides, and more. It's an intense, physical training program that demands a lot of time away from friends, family, and comforts of modern society. Many of our alumni have gone on to work for public land agencies as trail crew leaders and program managers, directorial staff in other conservation corps and environmental organizations, wildland fire, and outdoor education. Our staff includes the Program Director, Program Coordinator, AmeriCorps/Grant Coordinator, and Program Assistant. Additionally, each season we hire six supervisors to mentor, train, and support each crew. This is a tough job that entails developing a weekly curriculum, training members in trail construction and maintenance, member development, administrative duties, and building a safe, inclusive, and productive community. The supervisor lives in the wilderness with their crew while the Program staff provides support along with public land agency logistics staff. The Backcountry Trails Program would be obsolete without the great support from our public land agency partners in the CA State Parks System, NPS, and USFS. The agency partner staff provide food and camp logistics, skills training, and additional mentorship to our crews living and working in the backcountry.

Skill Snapshot

Trail Construction
None
Entry
Full
Expert
Trail Maintenance
None
Entry
Full
Expert
Project Preparation
None
Entry
Full
Expert
Project Planning & Design
None
Entry
Full
Expert
Project & Crew Management
None
Entry
Full
Expert
Program Admin & Leadership
None
Entry
Full
Expert

Industry Roles

Corps

Portfolio, Documents, and Certifications

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Trail Type Experience

Detailed Skill Profile

Trail Construction

Experience Details:

Our staff and season supervisors have extensive knowledge of trail construction principles. Combined, our three full-time staff and season supervisors have between 50 and 70 years of trail work experience. Dry-stone masonry, crosscut sawing, and building backcountry equestrian tread surfaces from native materials are some of our specialties. We work primarily on wilderness trails, from remote trails in Northern California, to the Whitney Portal in the Sierra Nevada.

Skill Self-Assessment

Construction Specifications

Corridor Clearing

Hand-Built Trail Construction

Mechanized Trail Construction

Trail Finishwork

Water Management/Drainage Features

Water Crossing Structures

Retaining Walls

Tread Hardening

Trailside Structures / Dispersed Recreation

Decommissioning Trails

Trail Maintenance

Experience Details:

Our six crew typically spnd about 50% of their season in maintenance and trail opening before moving into project work. We have over 45 years of trail maintenance and construction experience.

Skill Self-Assessment

Maintenance Specifications

Inventory & Assessment

Corridor Clearing: Power tools

Corridor clearing: Hand Tools

Tread Maintenance - Hand tools

Tread Maintenance - Mechanized Equipment

Drainage Features/Water Management

Project Preparation

Experience Details:

We spend extensive time in our off-season recruiting and reaching targeted populations according to our strategic recruitment plans based on principles of Equity, Inclusion and Justice. Our staff remains committed to providing curriculum based on the principles of trail construction and maintenance and how it pertains to our project partners' compliance procedures (tribal input, environmental impact assessments). During project work, our crews operate under AmeriCorps guidelines and follow the lead of our project partners (State, Federal).

Skill Self-Assessment

Land Use Plan Alignment

Define Purpose and Need of Project

Corridor Planning

Stakeholder Engagement

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Principles

Project Planning and Design

Experience Details:

We plan our work two to five years in advance with our federal and state project partners and have had ongoing agreements with USFS and NPS for many years.

Skill Self-Assessment

Project Cost Estimation

Implementation Plan

Trail Specifications

Design

Trail Plans

Interpretation

Permitting

Universal Design/ADA Accessibility

Project & Crew Management

Experience Details:

The CCC and AmeriCorps requires our crew submit weekly safety meetings, job-hazard analyses, and other related documentation on a monthly basis. Staff visits and project partner engagemement also ensures the full-safety procedures are operational. Crews are managed by one supervisor and the work is guided wy the supervisor and public land agency staff. Daily task and safety meetings ensures clarity on the day's work. Performance for each member is evaluated monthly to ensure and encourage maximum and effective production. GIS and data management tools are being developed to better aid our partners visualize our comulative production, especially over the past 10 years.

Skill Self-Assessment

Crew Recruitment

Crew Management

Jobsite Safety

Jobsite Risk Management

Performance Management

Field-based Resource Protection

Program Administration and Leadership

Experience Details:

Our staff has a 45 year history in keeping the relationships with sponsoring agencies and fiscal support functional and thriving.

Skill Self-Assessment

Program Budgeting

Communications

Contract Administration

Education and Public Outreach

Funding/Grants

Inspections/Monitoring

Partnership and Collaboration

Policy/Directives/Law

Visitor Use Management and Monitoring

Agreement Development

Agency Specific

Experience Details:

Though some of our staff has had previous employment as Blasters-in-Training, bridge inspection, we do not engage in tese tasks in our current roles. However, we can provide additional safety support to agency staff conducting these operations as we understand their principles.

Skill Self-Assessment

Blasting Certification

BLM Inventory, Assessment, Monitoring

Bridge Inspection

Contracting Officer Representative

Sawyer Certification

National Trail System Specific

Experience Details:

Backcountry staff have all worked for federal and state agencies conducting extensive project work on National Historic Trails and understand the principles, compiance issues, and train our corpsmembers to follow these principles.

Skill Self-Assessment

IAM (Inventory, Assessment, and Monitoring)

National Scenic Trail Designation and Planning

National Historic Trail Designation and Planning

National Recreation Trail Designation and Planning

Rail Trail Designation and Planning

Skill Profile

Construction Specifications: Expert
Corridor Clearing: Expert
Hand-Built Trail Construction: Expert
Mechanized Trail Construction: Full Performance
Trail Finishwork: Expert
Water Management/Drainage Features: Expert
Water Crossing Structures: Expert
Retaining Walls: Expert
Tread Hardening: Expert
Trailside Structures / Dispersed Recreation: Expert
Decommissioning Trails: Expert
Maintenance Specifications: Expert
Inventory & Assessment: Expert
Corridor Clearing: Power tools: Expert
Corridor clearing: Hand Tools: Expert
Tread Maintenance - Hand tools: Expert
Tread Maintenance - Mechanized Equipment: Expert
Drainage Features/Water Management: Expert
Land Use Plan Alignment: Expert
Define Purpose and Need of Project: Expert
Corridor Planning: Expert
Stakeholder Engagement: Expert
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Principles: Expert
Project Cost Estimation: Expert
Implementation Plan: Expert
Trail Specifications: Expert
Design: Expert
Trail Plans: Expert
Interpretation: Expert
Permitting: Expert
Universal Design/ADA Accessibility: Expert
Crew Recruitment: Expert
Crew Management: Expert
Jobsite Safety: Expert
Jobsite Risk Management: Expert
Performance Management: Expert
Field-based Resource Protection: Expert
Program Budgeting: Expert
Communications: Expert
Contract Administration: Expert
Education and Public Outreach: Expert
Funding/Grants: Expert
Inspections/Monitoring: Expert
Partnership and Collaboration: Expert
Policy/Directives/Law: Expert
Visitor Use Management and Monitoring: Expert
Agreement Development: Expert
Blasting Certification: Entry Level
BLM Inventory, Assessment, Monitoring: Expert
Bridge Inspection: Entry Level
Contracting Officer Representative: Entry Level
Sawyer Certification: Expert
IAM (Inventory, Assessment, and Monitoring): Full Performance
National Scenic Trail Designation and Planning: Expert
National Historic Trail Designation and Planning: Expert
National Recreation Trail Designation and Planning: Expert
Rail Trail Designation and Planning: Entry Level

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Member since Dec 2022
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