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Veterans Fight Unemployment with Fire

The California Conservation Corps is the latest to offer returning military personnel training in wildfire prevention, making them attractive candidates for firefighting and forestry jobs.

BY: | September 29, 2011



Last year, almost 12 percent of veterans who served post-9/11 were unemployed. So the California Conservation Corps and the U.S. Forest Service are the latest to step in to give veterans more skills for a job in which they can still protect their fellow citizens, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal. Both agencies have partnered to start their own part of the national Veterans Green Corps, a program that has trained 175 vets for careers in forestry and wildfire prevention. Eligible participants in California's program will receive a wage of $8 an hour and receive health insurance, forestry training and safety equipment. In light of the fires that ignited in states like Texas, Florida and California this year, these are skills that will never cease to be needed. Other branches of the Veterans Green Corps also exist in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and New Mexico.


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Caroline Cournoyer

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's deputy web editor.

E-mail: ccournoyer@governing.com
Twitter: @governing

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