Conservationist to work in Australia
By Neil Nisperos/Staff Writer, The Lompoc Record
July 26, 2006

Timothy Brogan, a member of the California Conservation Corps from Lompoc, will travel to Australia after being selected to do conservation work in the land Down Under.

After a competitive statewide selection process, Brogan, of Lompoc, was chosen as one of 10 CCC participants in the Corps' exchange with Conservation Volunteers Australia. CVA is a nonprofit organization focusing on practical conservation projects to better the Australian environment.

“Aside from being very excited, I view this as an opportunity to represent myself, the organization of the CCC, the state and the country,” Brogan said. “I want to absorb from Australian culture but also to add to their ideas of who Americans are.”

Brogan, 21, is a 2002 graduate of Maple High School in Lompoc. He joined the CCC in November 2004 and is based in Santa Maria.

The CCC group will leave California August 4 and will return Sept. 29. Down Under, the corps members will work in the Melbourne area on weed removal, planting and revegetation efforts, a platypus survey and dune restoration. They will also travel to central Australia, working in Alice Springs and around the foothills of the famous Ayer's Rock. Projects will include invasive species mapping and the restoration of a historic train carriage.

Corpsmen earn their basic CCC salaries while on the exchange but pay their own airfare and expenses. The exchange between the two programs has taken place annually since 1988, and the CCC expects to host a group of Australians in September.

Brogan works as a crew leader for conservation corps members and has done work in the Klamath and Los Padres National Forests. His duties include the repopulation of native plants to wildlife areas and stabilizing the levee in the Santa Maria River through the planting of willows.

The conservationist said he hopes to continue his supervisory position with the CCC after leaving college.

“By protecting the wildlife and nature, we give voice to those things that cannot speak by being conscious of the importance of plants, animals and natural resources,” Brogan said of his work. “Right now this is my whole career - it's very important to me because when I do this work I feel a sense of achievement and giving back to the Earth.”

The California Conservation Corps, a state program created in 1976, hires young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 for a year of conservation work and emergency response. For more information on the CCC, visit www.ccc.ca.gov.

Neil Nisperos can be reached at 737-1059 or nnisperos@lompoc record.com.