Conservation Corps looking for a few good women
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

HARD WORK- Emily Nash, center, passes a stalk of Arundo to Joshua Guy on a recent Friday afternoon in a Malibu creek bed. The two are part of the California Conservation Corps crew stationed at the Camarillo/Oxnard center. The city of Malibu contracted the corps members to clear the creek of the invasive bamboo-like plant, which chokes out native plants and trees.

Women join the California Conservation Corps for any number of reasons.

Pauline Overley entered because she was bored with selling jewelry back home in Redding, Calif., and was beginning to dabble in more destructive activities.

"I needed to find myself and see what I actually wanted to do." the 20-year-old said.

Escaping the violent San Bernardino neighborhood that claimed the lives of some friends motivated Rosie Wright to join the Corps.

"It was something I thought I'd like to do and I ended up loving it," said Wright, 21, while on a break from a Corps class on chain saw operation.

The women are rare finds for the world's oldest and largest conservation agency, which wants to add more females to its force.

The Corps hires young adults age 18 to 25 for a year to work on restoring or building hiking trails, parks and fish and wildlife habitats.

Corps spokeswoman Susanne Levitsky said she's seen petite women outlast some males in the year-long program.

The state agency prides itself on the diversity of its members, which has included people who are blind and deaf, but would like to hire more females, Levitsky said.

"With more people we can do more work, more service to the state of California," she said.

Some 1,300 male and female corpsmembers either live at seven residential centers or report to work at 15 nonresidential centers throughout the state. Twenty-five percent of them are women.

At the Camarillo/Oxnard center, which moved last month from its home of 30 years on the California State University Channel Islands campus to a vacant elementary school in Oxnard, a dozen of the 60 Corpsmembers are women.

"Women discover themselves here," said Terri Kirby, conservation supervisor at the Camarillo/ Oxnard center. Kirby has worked for the Corps for 28 years. "It's empowering for them," she said.

Many of the Corps women appreciate the physically demanding work.

"It's fun; you've got to like what you do," said Wright, who's been in the program for three months.

Valerie Bovain, a San Diego resident who arrived at the center two weeks ago, said though scraps and bruises come with the job she's getting into shape. Bovain said she's lost about 10 pounds since her arrival.

"The work is never too much," said Bovain, 21. "They have us pace ourselves."

Corps work is no walk in the park

Bovain was one of three women on a Corps crew of 14 who worked in the early afternoon sun clearing a large patch of arundo from a creek bed in Malibu. One crew member used a chain saw to cut down the 35-foot-high stalks, handing them to the rest of the crew who formed a line up the steep bank walls.

If left unchecked, arundo chokes out native plants and trees and destabilizes creek banks, said Jennifer Becker, fish habitat assistant for the Camarillo/Oxnard center.

The work bringing the bamboo-like plant out of the creek bed is slow going but probably the safest way, so the crew doesn't have to travel up and down the steep banks, Becker said

The city of Malibu contracted with the Corps earlier this year to help build a community park on this strip of rubble and downed trees along Las Flores Canyon Road. Corps crews will maintain the creek for the next five years.

Through the Corps' bioengineering services, which restores the aquatic environment for wildlife and native plants that development has webbed away, it's hoped that the Southern California steelhead salmon will be coaxed back into the area.

The effort is part of the Corps' partnership with the Department of Fish and Game to reinvigorate the state's streams and estuary habitats.

The bad, the good

Officials say, however, that the Corps is not for everyone: Don't sign up if you have a violent criminal record or are unwilling to work.

The Corps runs all applicants fingerprints through the Department of Justice.

And though Corpsmembers are allowed free time they are otherwise expected to work 40 hours a week. And when there's a major fire, Corps crews providing logistical support to firefighters at fire camps could work 12-hour days.

Corpsmembers who didn't graduate from high school must attend evening classes taught at the center by a credentialed teacher.

Jim Kastner, education coordinator for the Camarillo/Oxnard center, said an average of 10 corpsmembers a year graduate from the charter high school.

At residential centers, corpsmembers live in dormitorystyle rooms. The centers generally have amenities for the crews, such as a TV room, pool table, library, kitchen and weight room.

Bovain shares a room with seven females, but said they all get along. It can be difficult, however, adjusting to the different personalities of the corpsmembers, she said.

Although members can leave the program at any time, those who finish out the year or graduate from it are in line for benefits.

Completing the program could lead to employment with state agencies. They recognize the strong work ethic and selfdiscipline that's required to complete the Corps' program, said Kastner, himself a former Corpsmember.

For example, Caltrans gives job applicants who've spent a year of Corps extra points on its exam, he said.

Corps graduates, who complete several hours of community volunteer service and a few specialized programs, are eligible for a $2,000 college scholarship from the state and, after meeting a few more requirements, an additional $4,700 scholarship from the federal government.

But the Corps won't tolerate members violating certain rule. Bringing alcohol to the center or engaging in violence are grounds for immediate dismissal, for example. Those who commit less serious offenses may be eligible for a second chance, however.

Wright was allowed back into the program after leaving prematurely to care for a sick relative.

"Good thing they have second chancers," she said.

The three women said being in the Corps helped them make plans for their future.

After completing the program, Wright wants a job with the Department of Forestry. Overley plans to go into law enforcement and Bovain wants to attend college and eventually open her own pastry business.

The Camarillo/Oxnard center of the California Conservation Corps holds an orientation workshop 11 a.m. every Wednesday at the former El Rio School, 2714 Vineyard Ave. in Oxnard.

Call (805) 278-2787 for more information.