Total Running Time: 12:35
Voice Montage: There’s not a lot of jobs out there…. Everyone is getting released now a days…. I’ve been out of work for six months, and the bills are piling up…. I spent nine months looking for a job…. There a lot of people in general out looking for work… the job market is pretty bad right now.
[Steel drum intro music]
John Heil: Welcome to Forest Focus, a series of programs about the National Forests of California. I’m John Heil, and today we are discussing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This is a Federal program aimed at reducing the impact of the nation’s worst economic slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Ann Dunsky of our Public Affairs Staff had a chance to explore the subject with Regional Forester Randy Moore.
Ann Dunsky: And my first question for you today, Randy is what exactly is the ARRA?
Randy Moore: Well Ann, I think it's what you said in its simplest terms. The bill was signed off back in February of 2009 and it's an opportunity to not only employ people but create green jobs in the process and to hopefully help stimulate a whole new market, or a whole new economy.
Ann Dunsky: You mentioned green jobs, can you tell me about some of the jobs that we are trying to create?
Randy Moore: Sure I think when you talk about green jobs you're looking at, first of all biomass and if we go out and try and reduce the potential for these devastating wildfires, we should be able to create energy out of the material that's creating these catastrophic fires. And we also focus a lot on upgrading our facilities so that it also employs people in these communities, particularly in the carpentry trade, masonry and whatnot. So if you look at it holistically we've tried to employ a wide range of skills to do ARRA work.
Ann Dunsky: You know there is some confusion. I think a lot of people think that we're creating more jobs for Forest Service employees.
Randy Moore: None of this money goes to Forest Service employees. What we do have is the opportunity to employ people on a temporary basis to work on projects for up to two years or so to accomplish this work.
Ann Dunsky: And do you have any personal feelings about this?
Randy Moore: You know, our employees live in these communities that have been affected and we're just as much a part of these communities as anyone else and to be able to respond, even though it may be a small piece in the bigger scheme of things, I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to be a part of recovering this country.
Ann Dunsky: Thank you very much.
John Heil: Milt Wingert is the ARRA Program Manager for the Region. Ann caught up with Milt recently to discuss the program.
Milt Wingert: The ARRA program, as we call it, is a program to put people back to work. And we are doing this throughout our region, mainly in California but we also are responsible for areas of Hawaii and some of the Pacific islands. And the goal is to go to distressed counties to put as many people back to work on viable projects as we can.
Ann Dunsky: I understand that we’re not going to give any of this money to employees. Can you explain how that works?
Milt Wingert: The program is designed for people who are out of work and essentially non-Forest Service personnel. This is the best way we can help impact the economy and get this money down to the people who really need it and need to be employed. And not only are they getting a paycheck, they’re able to get some valuable experience in some sort of work. And we’re doing everything from building and upgrading roads and trails to working on buildings that are in the Forest Service, so there’s a variety of trades where people can get this experience as well as a paycheck.
Ann Dunsky: I think people would like to know what kind of dollars we are talking about?
Milt Wingert: As an agency, the Forest Service has received over a billion dollars in funding for ARRA programs. The money that has come to this region is approximately a hundred and eighty-five million dollars. And that’s being spread throughout eighteen National Forests in California and again to some of those Pacific islands that we’re responsible for. Our goal is to employ as many people as possible to get the benefit of this money.
Ann Dunsky: Let’s talk a little bit about the ripple effect that this money is having on the local economies.
Milt Wingert: The intent is to get the money to people in communities and to businesses in the communities. An example I can give is if we are working on a project to restore a structure, we may have to buy material from local lumber yards, hardware stores, concrete plants and what we’ve created is a ripple effect. So maybe people at those places are not getting new jobs but they’re remaining employed because we are buying from them. And that’s a real important fact that many people don’t think about is how far down this ripple goes as we work on our projects. And we have that in mind with every project we work on is what’s the overall impact at a local community in a distressed county? How can we make a difference? And we are doing that right now. This isn’t the first time that the Forest Service has taken on projects like this. And we can look back not too far in history at the Civilian Conservation Corps, known as the CCC and the work that was done throughout the forests in the nation. Much of what they did in those days is still standing and it’s reflective of the great work that was done and the lessons that we learned about what people can do when they’re given a job and how quickly they adapt and learn a new trade.
Ann Dunsky: Anything else that you want to add?
Milt Wingert: We are putting people to work, we’re getting projects done, and it’s something that actually gives back to the community. And the projects that we complete will benefit the community for a long time. It’s not a one-time event where we’re just paying somebody to do a job. Everyone, every citizen of this country is able to use the National Forests. And what we’re doing is we’re really improving for long-term benefit of the people of our communities.
Ann Dunsky: Thank you very, very much.
John Heil: To learn about a specific ARRA project, Ann visited a job site on the Eldorado National Forest. There she spoke with Forest Civil Engineer Barrett McMurtry who was overseeing the re-roofing of a recreational lodge at Echo Summit.
SFX: Hammering noises
Barrett McMurtry: What they are doing is replacing a roof here that had failed due to the heavy snow loads at this site and so we came back in and designed a new roof that can handle the high snow loads here which get up above 15 feet. It’s part of a project to re-roof three of our buildings. This is the last of the three to be re-roofed. So this, this site’s got a lot of potential, so it was important to re-roof it to protect the resources to protect this building so that it could be used in the future.
Ann Dunsky: How many people are you putting to work here?
Barrett McMurty: The contractor that was awarded this work typically has between 7 and 10 employees working on the ground, on the projects at any one time. And then in addition to that, they have employees back at their office, so it has kept a number of people employed for the length of the project.
Ann Dunsky: Is there anything else you want people to know about the Forest Service’s role and the ARRA?
Barrett McMurty: I know at least on the Eldorado we’ve had a number of projects that are now getting done that are good projects that needed to be done, but now we have a funding mechanism and then simultaneously it’s keeping, uh, private sector employees employed. So it’s been good all around.
Ann Dunsky: Great.
John Heil: Besides employing people in local communities, the Forest Service is also helping young people obtain work through both the California Conservation Corps and the Federal Job Corps Program. On the Plumas National Forest, Steve Dunsky met Shaun Cushman, a carpentry instructor.
Steve Dunsky: Tell us about Job Corps. What is Job Corps and how does it work?
Shaun Cushman: Job Corps is we take troubled youths, ages 16 to 24, they come to our center we’re training them to do a trade. On our center we have the carpenters trade, laborers trade, culinary, automotive, forestry trade on the center. So they can come and choose a trade that they want to go to. They have tasks they have to complete, to be called completers in the trade. Part of the criteria for our craft is they, they have to either get their GED or their high school diploma. And if they are completers in the trade, they can gain a direct entry into the union, in the apprenticeship program. And we have employers who are willing to pick up the students when we do have a student who is ready to go out into the workforce.
Steve Dunsky: It must be gratifying I mean, what are your feelings about it?
Shaun Cushman: Being able to see the youths and talk to the youths that have come, have come from some, some tough situations. I mean most of them are drop outs from school. They come from situations with abuse from the families, they come from situations with their own alcohol or drug abuse, they come into our centers, you know they get a good training, they get an education, and then get a job when they get out of here, and they succeed in that. So now they’ve come from a real troubled situation, to getting something they never thought they could get with an education and training, and then place them in the field. It’s something that you know, is really satisfying to see. You know a student who comes from what they thought was a whole lost life to a success story and we see, not all of ‘em, but we see a pretty good deal of them turn out that way.
John Heil: Civil Engineering Technician Herman Wendell of the Plumas National Forest oversaw the renovation work on several ARRA projects. Recently he spoke with Steve Dunsky about these projects.
Steve Dunsky: I’ve talked to other Forest Service people about Job Corps, you know especially like retirees and when Job Corps first came in, and there was a lot of skepticism, and then almost universally I had people tell me that they were as much affected and changed by the program as the young people were.
Herman Wendell: I was skeptical at the beginning because I didn’t know what I was getting into, but once we got into it and the individuals showed up, from day one, they wanted to start work, every one of them. And we installed 52 windows in here in, in 7 days. That is a tremendous amount of effort. And we put down 40 yards of concrete in 2 weeks. They were complaining that they didn’t have enough mud and they were pouring mud in 105 degree temperature, I mean, they did a tremendous job. And I’m happy that they came. And I was kinda skeptical but when they finally got on board, and started working you couldn’t, you couldn’t ask for more hard workers.
John Heil: The young people of the Jobs Corps and CCC gain a variety of experiences from these ARRA sponsored projects. Here is a sample of what they have to say:
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John Heil: Thank you to all the guests on this episode of Forest Focus. Here in the Pacific Southwest Region of the USDA Forest Service, we are doing our part to make the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act a success. For more information, please visit: www.fs.fed.us/r5/recovery. I’m John Heil, and thank you for listening.