MONTANA —With wildland fire winding down in parts of the country, the equipment and supplies critical for incident management support are being returned to caches across the country for cleaning, refurbishment and storage--or to be shipped out to new incidents. Most of this equipment is also used as part of other all-risk incidents such as floods, hurricanes, and search and rescue efforts. The National Interagency Support Cache system manages sixteen all-risk incident equipment caches nationwide. These caches rely on administratively determined employees during peak fire activity.

Led by Camp Crew Boss Randy Rector, an Anaconda Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center camp crew arrived in Denver, Colo., to help ease the workload of staff at the Rocky Mountain Cache. CCC camp crews are sought after because the young students are not afraid of hard work. 

Real-world experience working long days on a camp crew reinforces students’ work skills; it helps them improve their ability to work as a team while also honing their time management skills. For the better part of three weeks, the Anaconda crew tested, cleaned, dried and rolled up fire hoses that they then packed onto pallets to be returned to its place of origin.

“It’s extremely gratifying,” said student Riley McPherson, born and raised in Denver. “I feel like a cog in a bigger wheel that I never thought I could be a part of it. . . It’s worth every single day and every single minute.” The opportunity for the students to earn money is icing on a cake. It’s not glamourous work, but it is essential to ensuring that public land management agencies are prepared to manage wildfire.

McPherson is halfway through Anaconda’s welding certification program. He’d like to enroll in Anaconda’s advanced welding program once he completes basic training. After graduation, McPherson plans to move to Alaska where one day he hopes to own his own business. His Job Corps experience is typical of a CCC enrolled student. Their career goals may not include working for the agency, but they appreciate the opportunity to experience and support the conservation mission of the CCCs and the Forest Service. 

“I wish I knew about it [Job Corps] coming out of high school,” said McPherson.  “I wish I could have started a long, long time ago. I would recommend it to who does not know what they are doing with their life quite yet.”

Anaconda Job Corps, located in Anaconda, Mont. has the capacity to train and educate 170 students at any one time. These students support and conduct work that enhances the nation’s public lands while providing leading-edge social, educational and conservation experiences to underserved youth. The CCCs are eager to work with, support and collaborate with national forests and grasslands. If your unit would like to order up a CCC camp crew, reach out to JCNO-FAM Program Coordinator CorDell Taylor at cordell.taylor@usda.gov or 970-615-0922.