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The California Conservation Corps'(CCC) Los Padres Center is a residential facility located on the grounds of Camp San Luis Obispo, a California National Guard base near the city of San Luis Obispo.
The CCC has had a residential facility at the base continuously since 1976, when it opened Base Camp 1, the CCC's first ever residential camp.
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805-549-3561
805-549-3583 fax
About Our Center
Los Padres Center, formally known as San Luis Obispo Center, was the first California Conservation Corps residential center opened in 1976.
The site is located in San Luis Obispo on the grounds of the California National Guard's Camp San Luis Obispo. The CCC has operated a residential center on the Camp since 1976, when it established Base Camp 1, the first residential facility opened by the CCC after it's creation. Center facilities include dormitory space for 80 corpsmembers, additional dormitory space for 30 corpsmembers attending the CCC's initial COMET training, a dining hall, classrooms, recreation facilities, and various administration and support buildings.
The current residential center has proven to be an excellent place for corpsmembers from many cultures, ethnic, and economic backgrounds to grow and become more responsible citizens. Through a concentrated effort on the part of center staff, strong relationships with local education providers, project sponsors, and counseling services have been developed. Corpsmembers have been able to take advantage of the many opportunities for personal development, while enjoying the natural beauty that is a part of the Central Coast.
Housing and Facilities
In the late 1980's the California Conservation Corps built the facility it currently rents from the National Guard. The Facility is state of the art in terms of meeting the needs of a CCC program. The SLO camp is one of the largest in the CCC and houses 80+ corpsmembers. It also features the best kitchen and dining facilities in the CCC, and some of the finest educational and corpsmember recreation facilities.
Work Projects/Partnerships
The CCC is mandated by legislation to "Assist in emergency operations, such as natural disaster relief and the rescue of lost and injured persons." The Los Padres Center's location in the Central Coast region of California has assisted in the CCC's emergency response efforts. As the CCC's only residential center on the coast between San Francisco and Ventura, Los Padres Center crews can easily respond within a five hour drive time to emergencies from Los Angeles to San Francisco and throughout the San Joaquin Valley. As a result, a significant portion of work performed by Center crews is in emergency response - fighting fires, earthquake recovery, flood fighting, oil spill clean ups, and agricultural emergencies.
The Los Padres Center's resources projects include trail rehabilitation, trail construction, fuel hazard reduction, tree planting, native plant restoration, landscaping, park development and minor construction. Center projects take place primarily in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and southern Monterey Counties, although projects from one end of the state to the other are not uncommon. Center Corpsmembers will find themselves working on the Beach with beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean to working trails in wilderness areas of the National Forest.
The fundamental concept in the Center's success has been building and maintaining relationships with other organizations. These relationships have led to long-lasting partnerships that keep the CCC actively involved in successful resource enhancement projects. Local partnerships are being maintained with numerous sponsors, including the Department of Fish & Game, the Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CDF), the Morro Bay National Estuary Program, Morro Estuary Greenbelt Alliance, The United States Forest Service (USFS), California State Parks, Resource Conservation Districts, Community Services Districts and local non-profit Land Conservancies. These partners, along with the Resources Agency, Coastal Conservancy, Packard Foundation, and the Nature Conservancy have made significant investments in resource enhancement projects and consistently call on the Los Padres Center to assist with planning and execution of their projects.
For more information about projects contact: Bruce Bonifas, Conservation Supervisor at bbonifas@ccc.ca.gov
Education and Training
The SLO camp is conveniently located adjacent to Cuesta Community College, offering corpsmembers educational opportunities that are simply not available at many other CCC centers.
The SLO Camp is in partnership with the John Muir Charter School which provides corpsmembers an opportunity to get their high school diploma.
Special Programs
Fire Safe Council Community Chipping Program: The Los Padres Center operates the only Fire Safe Council partnership in the CCC. This partnership provides free brush chipping to County residents through a grant from the federal government, passed through CDF which contracts with CCC to provide Corpsmember labor, supervision and equipment. The Fire Safe Chipping Program is a critical part of the wildfire prevention program in San Luis Obispo County. Fire Save Councils are comprised of all City and Special Service district Fire Chiefs, CDF, and is chaired by a County Board of Supervisor .
Seasonal Backcountry Trails Program:
The SLO camp operates the only backcountry trails crews outside of the Sierras and Siskiyous. Corpsmembers are recruited and transferred to Los Padres center from the CCC's summer backcountry program to perform similar work in the Los Padres National Forest during the months of September to December. These corpsmembers are added to our existing interested corpsmembers to form one of the best backtructry trails crew in the CCC. The crew generally works 10 day "spikes" to various locations of the Los Padres National Forest. The last several years crew has been supervised by Conservationist I Kiva Vigel, who has spent the last three seasons as a Backcountry Supervisor for the CCC's statewide program. Kiva, who is a permanent conservationist I at Los Padres Center, offers the USFS and Corpsmembers a broad base of experience for success. Los Padres Center also "spikes" throughout the year with other crews.
Morro Bay National Estuary Program ( MBNEP) Partnerhhip:
The Los Padres Center developed a major working relationship with the Morro Bay National Estuary program that funds a CCC watershed crew to perform conservation work in the estuary's watershed. The Watershed crew is involved in bank repair to prevent erosion, dismantling derelict boats threatening to polute the bay, eelgrass planting in the bay, drainage problems, fence take down and riparian protection, removal of exotic plants and grasses and salmon and steelhead in stream habitat restoration. The CCC has been awarded $100,000 per year for each of the last three years to do this work.
Salmon and Steelhead restoration program:
Since 1998 the Los Padres Camp has developed a comprehensive approach to Steelhead recovery on the Central Coast and has provided the workforce to implement the recovery effort. We have worked closely with the Dept. of Fish and Game and local watershed steward groups to bring in money and do projects that will provide a direct benefit to steelhead. These include: habitat assessment and inventory, riparian restoration, in-stream habitat enhancement, GIS Mapping, exotic species removal, fish passage improvement, stream bank stabilization, upper watershed erosion control, and cattle exclusion fencing in sensitive riparian areas. Perhaps what is most unique and important about our efforts are two things. One would be the success we've had in developing pilot projects with private land owners.
Because of the duplicity of our mission in enhancing the environment and developing young adults, we are often able to bridge the gap between land owners and government agencies. We have made it our mission to assist land owners in accessing the funding resources available to them while also making the bureaucratic red tape less intimidating. Another area in which we have achieved a high level of success is integrating ourselves into the overall watershed management plans developed by local watershed groups. In most cases we are the action arm of their plans and without a strong CCC presence, these environmental work projects simply would not get done.
Awards and accolades:
" In April 2004, the California Conservation Corps - Los Padres Center received awards from the San Luis Obispo County Community Foundation. The two 2004 SLO County Environmental Awards for:
Environmental Achievement of the Year, and
Sustained Environmental Contribution
The California Conservation Corps - Los Padres Center was nominated this year by various community work partners who have formed relationships with center staff and corpsmembers through our 27 years of service.
" In July, 2004 the Center received notice that four staff received the "Director's Award of Excellence" in recognition of their exceptional achievements as a team through 2003.
For outstanding performance and contributions to the Vision and Mission of the California Conservation Corps in the area of watershed restoration, the Sustained Superior Accomplishment "Team Award of Excellence" is awarded to the following Los Padres Center staff:
*Bruce Bonifas, Conservation Supervisor
*Phil LaFollette, Conservationist II
*Bobby Jo Close, Conservationist I
*Meredith Hardy, Fish Habitat Assistant
These individuals represent a high degree of professionalism and exceptional commitment to building a watershed restoration program for corpsmembers now recognized by federal, state, and local sponsors as a critical asset to the long term restoration plans of the Central Coast environmental community.
Letter of appreciation - Department of Fish and Game
Letter of appreciation - Cambria Chamber of Commerce
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