The California Conservation Corps (CCC) is a workforce development program that offers young men and women the chance to serve their state and become employable citizens through life skills training and hard work in environmental conservation, fire protection, and emergency services.

The CCC hires young men and women to assist governmental and nongovernmental organizations in conserving, protecting, and restoring natural resources while providing corpsmembers with on-the-job training and educational opportunities.

The CCC is an important part of the state's emergency response and homeland security network. It dispatches crews within hours to respond to fires, floods, earthquakes, oil spills, agricultural pest infestations, and security threats.

The annualized corpsmember population for 2007-08 is anticipated to be 1,510 of which 200 corpsmembers are supervised by local nonprofit conservation corps. The CCC will also maintain 9 residential and 18 nonresidential facilities throughout the state.

Since department programs drive the need for infrastructure investment, each department has a related capital outlay program to support this need. For the specifics on the CCC's Capital Outlay Program, see "Infrastructure Overview."