Wyden pitches 21st Century Conservation Corps plan

{child_byline}CARISA CEGAVSKE

Senior Staff Writer

The News-Review

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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, wants to invest billions in federal money to building a modern Civilian Conservation Corps he said could create jobs in rural America while preventing wildfires.

Wyden made a pitch for the legislation, introduced earlier this month, at a news conference Wednesday morning. He said people in rural America are hurting and his plan can help.

“Rural America feels like it has been hit with a wrecking ball,” Wyden said.

If successful, the 21st Century Conservation Corps for our Health and our Jobs Act would employ rural Americans thinning federal forests to prevent wildfire. It’s a plan Wyden said would also decrease health risks for people with lung and heart issues, who are more vulnerable both to COVID-19 infection and to harmful effects from wildfire smoke.

Wyden said the COVID-19 crisis has impacted forestry workers, many of whom have been laid off despite being considered essential workers. And the recreation industry, growing in importance to the economy of western states has pretty much come to a complete halt, and getting better doesn’t just happen by osmosis,” Wyden said.

Wyden’s plan would provide $5.5 billion for the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to increase hazardous fuels reduction and thinning operations.

It would also create a $7 billion relief fund for outfitters and guides who have permits with the Forest Service and BLM.

It would give $9 billion for job training and hiring to land and conservation corps groups.

It would also provide funds for capital improvements, forest restoration, farm water conservation and other outdoor jobs.

And it would provide $100 million for land management agencies to purchase personal protective equipment for workers.

Wyden was joined at Wednesday’s press conference by National Wildlife Federation President Collin O’Mara and The Corps Network President Mary Ellen Sprenkel.

O’Mara said Wyden’s plan was a perfect way to handle the unemployment crisis that has followed the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said it’s the same kind of opportunity that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who created the original Civilian Conservation Corps program, saw during the Great Depression.

And he said it would help restore public lands.

“We need solutions that are as big as the challenges we face,” he said.

Sprenkel said the modern conservation corps is no longer a federal program, but a nonprofit, community-based effort that has existing partnerships with government agencies like the forest service.

She said it’s a successful model and ready to scale up to meet the current crisis.

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