Northwest Youth Corps - Congressman Honored

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Association of Service and Conservation Corps (NASCC) yesterday honored U.S. Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR) by awarding him NASCC’s Congressional Champion Award for his sponsorship of the Healthy Forest Youth Conservation Corps Act of 2004 (H.R. 4838). The award is being presented to only four members – one Republican and one Democrat from each the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Next week, Walden will tour a fuels reduction and conservation project being conducted by young adults in the Heart of Oregon Corps located in Deschutes County, an example of the type of work this legislation would encourage and foster.

The Act would establish a program for young adults to gain experience in forestland management while helping to implement fuels reduction components of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA), which was co-authored by Walden and signed into law in 2003. H.R. 4838 was legislation from the 108th Congress that passed the House of Representatives, but did not move in the Senate. Walden plans to reintroduce the bill for the 109th Congress this year.

Walden, who chairs the Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, introduced the Healthy Forest Youth Conservation Corps Act in July of 2004 to give young adults ages 16 to 25 the opportunity to obtain skills and valuable education in forestland management while conducting work in fuels reduction projects on federal forestlands. Projects would be directed at efforts to prevent catastrophic fire and rehabilitate public land affected or altered by fires. Most notably, work would be done in accordance with HFRA plans to reduce hazardous fuels.

Young adults participating in the Corps would be managed by the agency in charge of the given forestland, namely the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture. The managing agency could contract directly with youth, or they could enter into contracts with state-level departments of natural resources, agriculture or forestry.

“It is a tremendous honor to receive NASCC’s Congressional Champion Award for this Act, a bill that fosters not only education and development of our future generations, but also allows our youth to be involved in the important work that needs to be done in our federal forests to prevent catastrophic wildfire,” said Walden. “The Youth Conservation Corps would be a tool for training young people, especially those who are disadvantaged, on the importance of responsible land stewardship while giving them hands-on training to better prepare them for future careers in forest management. Equally as important, the Corps would be engaging in proactive measures to save our treasured forests, giving the kids a sense of pride and ownership in our public lands.”

'NASCC is pleased to honor Representative Walden with its 2004 Congressional Champion Award for his work in sponsoring the Healthy Forest Youth Conservation Corps Act. We thank him for recognizing the value of Corps to communities, the environment and young people and for his leadership in increasing support for the Corps movement,' said NASCC President Sally T. Prouty.

NASCC has members in 37 states including the Northwest Youth Corps in Oregon. Nationally, they have over 23,000 men and women enrolled in their various service and conservation corps programs that provide 14.5 million hours of work to their communities in 2003. Their diverse project portfolio ranges from building trails and erosion control structures to tutoring students in after-school programs and disseminating disaster preparedness information. In addition, their member corps have mobilized 129,000 volunteers who provided an additional 1.5 million hours of service improving local communities.

In Oregon, the Northwest Youth Corps is a job training, alternative/outdoor education, employment, and youth development organization that has served over 7,700 young people in a variety of programs since it was established in 1984.

Congressman Walden represents the Second District of Oregon, which includes 20 counties in southern, central and eastern Oregon. He is a Deputy Whip in the House leadership structure and a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce as well as the Committee on Resources.

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