[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 10, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN RECOGNITION OF THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CALIFORNIA CONSERVATION 
                   CORPS' BACKCOUNTRY TRAILS PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 10, 2008

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay 
special tribute to the California Conservation Corps' Backcountry 
Trails Program on the occasion of their 30th anniversary.
  The Backcountry Trails Program, created in 1979 by the CCC's current 
director, David Muraki, is a special program within the CCC and 
dedicated to preserving our remaining wilderness areas, making them 
safer and more accessible.
  Each spring, the Backcountry Trails Program assembles six widely 
diverse crews of men and women, hired from all around California and 
across the United States, who leave behind the conveniences and 
luxuries of modem life and venture into the mountains to spend five 
exhausting months doing some of the most challenging and ultimately 
rewarding work of their lives. The 17 members who comprise each of 
these crews learn through experience the skills of trail maintenance, 
construction, and the process of building healthy productive 
communities. It is extremely hard work and one of our best examples of 
truly beneficial public service.
  Over the past 30 years, the CCC has assembled 145 Backcountry Crews, 
whose combined efforts have repaired 8,560 miles of trail during 2 
million hours of service. That's enough trail to stretch from 
Sacramento, California to the recent Beijing Olympics, or from 
Sacramento, California to Washington DC, returning to Sacramento, and 
then back to Washington DC.
  After this year's corps-members complete the program, they will bring 
the total number of Backcountry Trails Program graduates to 1,954.
  Many corps-members discover that a single season working trails in 
the Backcountry is not enough. Close to 600 Backcountry graduates have 
been hired by various Federal and State land management agencies to use 
the skills they've acquired in the program to continue efforts to 
repair wilderness trails. The CCC's Backcountry Trails Program has 
become the premier trails apprenticeship program in the Nation. The 
graduates have been hired by every major national park in America.
  In addition to clearing trails, the crews have built 121,440 square 
feet of walls and over 21.5 miles of raised causeway. They have 
installed nearly 10,000 water bars, 25,883 rock steps, and built over 
4.3 miles of stone rip rap, carefully selecting and placing each rock 
into an exact fit in order to sustain the weight of mules and the 
ravages of time.
  In recognition of the CCC Backcountry Program's significance, the 
California State Commission has deemed this program an integral part of 
California's Ameri-Corps portfolio since 1995.
  Today, I am extremely proud to commend the California Conservation 
Corps' Backcountry Trails Program for their 30-year history of 
improving our wilderness and providing valuable training for so many of 
our young adults.

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