Column: Making a renewed commitment to conservation in the West

The students of Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers were recently given a second chance.

Earlier this year, the future of these programs was threatened when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed closing 9 of the 25 Civilian Conservation Center (CCC) programs and transferring the operations of the remaining Centers to the Department of Labor (DOL).

This transfer to the DOL would have been contrary to the very mission of the Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers, which aims to train the next generation of America’s workforce to carry out a unique and particularly important mis...