[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 196 (Wednesday, November 29, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S5672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO BRUCE SAITO

 Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise today to congratulate 
Bruce Saito, director of the California Conservation Corps--CCC--on a 
decades-long career spent protecting California's environment, building 
a climate workforce of the future, and introducing generations of 
Californians to the conservation movement.
  Today, the CCC is the oldest and largest conservation corps in the 
country and stands as a hallmark of California's commitment to the 
environment. But in 1977, just 1 year into its nascent mission, a young 
Bruce Saito signed up to serve with the organization as a supervisor 
and instructor, initiating what would become nearly a half-century of 
service protecting the beautiful State he grew up in.
  From the beginning, Bruce worked diligently, earning promotions to 
become the director of the Los Angeles Urban Center and conservationist 
supervisor at the CCC Camarillo Center. In 1986, he left the CCC to 
help found the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, where he would serve for 
three decades transforming the nonprofit into one of the largest in the 
country. Thanks to Bruce, over 100,000 trees have been planted in and 
around Los Angeles, and parks around the city have thrived.
  In 2015, Bruce would return to his roots when Governor Jerry Brown 
appointed him to serve as director of the CCC, where he served until 
October 31, 2023. In his time working there, Bruce has helped countless 
young Californians, giving young people valuable skills that in turn 
launched many of their careers and ignited lifelong passions for 
conservation.
  California is a leader in the fight against the climate crisis--not 
just in the United States, but around the world. But that ethos of 
environmentalism, the culture of care for the community, wasn't always 
inevitable. California remains the environmental envy of the Nation 
because of people like Bruce, who not only had the passion to protect 
our earth but the willingness to bring others along with him.
  And it is because of people like Bruce that our children's generation 
has a chance to know the same beauty of the land around us that we grew 
up with.
  All of California wishes Bruce well in his much-deserved retirement, 
and we thank him for his decades of service.

                          ____________________