California continues to face threats from wildfires that have become larger, more severe, and more frequent. It is essential that we understand the threats wildfires pose to California’s state parks and implement changes to support climate resilience to preserve parks for generations. Last fall, Danny McCamish, Natural Resource Program Supervisor and Senior Environmental Scientist for California State Parks' Colorado Desert District joined our Insider Speaker Series to share details of a program his district had recently undertaken to improve both climate resilience and rebuild relationships with Native nations. This program, the Native American Conservation Corps (NACC) remains an important way that this district improves the health of its public lands.
Moving into its fourth season, NACC is also a key asset in making sure that these parks are welcoming and accessible for all. “We strive to work through historic conflicts to join for the greater good and solve future needs. We need to be aware of the past and find a shared way forward,” McCamish shared.
Program creation: building a shared vision
The environmental and demographic makeup of the Colorado Desert District makes it a prime location for a program like the NACC. The 740,000 acres of parkland (equivalent in size to Delaware!) managed by the Colorado Desert District spans San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside Counties. The three state parks in this district — Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, and Palomar Mountain State Park — contain varied ecologies including oak and pine woodlands, desert, chaparral and scrub ecosystems, palm groves, and riparian swamps. San Diego County alone is home to 18 federally recognized Native reservations representing four different cultural groups, the Cahuilla, Cupeño, Kumeyaay, and Payómkawichum/Luiseño (all of whose ancestral homeland is in one of the three parks managed by the Colorado Desert District), more than any other county in the United States. These Indigenous nations share both ancestral homeland and current land boundaries with these three parks.
The NACC program was created to accomplish goals shared by California State Parks and local Native nations. Both groups want to protect and preserve these lands. California state parks wanted access to a skilled workforce that can perform these necessary responsibilities, and Native governments wanted their youth to receive training and develop skillsets that give them access to valuable career paths. Working for California State Parks would allow Native people who live on reservations or in communities bordering these parks to find good jobs and careers locally instead of leaving these communities or commuting over an hour or more each way to find work.
California State Parks specifically sought to improve the inclusivity of these parks by rebuilding relationships with Native communities to enable them to feel welcome in their traditional homelands. Both the California State Parks and Native governments wanted to provide traditional Indigenous education and fire management practices to the landscape. However, conversations held leading up to the program’s creation highlighted important nuances that would need to be considered to truly create a shared vision for the future.
“We are looking to bridge the gap between historic fire management and modern fire management. State Parks and local governments are often using fuel reduction efforts to reduce wildfire harm and severity to overall habitat and property loss while also integrating the return of fire to landscapes as an ecologic management tool. Tribal elders and Indigenous fire stewards are looking to promote fire use for certain ecologic habitat types or specific food source types in which they have historically managed the landscape. These actions historically have increased local source water production or increase acorn production or yields in oak or other vegetative food gathering locations,” said McCamish. Without fully committing to doing this work together, fuel reduction efforts undertaken by state or national agencies might not meet the needs of Indigenous communities.
Program successes: Pilot year and beyond
The NACC pilot program kicked off in 2021 at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, providing workforce development opportunities to local youth whose tribes have ancestral lands within the Colorado Desert District. Native nations recruited and nominated participants for the program. The program mirrored a conservation corps framework, with the participants living and sleeping where they were working. Traditional education including tool making, art, and food preparation was integrated into the occupational curriculum through partnerships with educators from local tribes and from Kumeyaay Community College. Seven team members graduated from the program’s pilot year. Since then, the NACC program has received expanded funding through the Governor’s Wildland Fuel Reduction Program, allowing NACC crews to work in all three parks in the district.
Over the last three years, over 21 team members have graduated from the NACC program, including Dominick Chapparosa. Chapparosa, 29, lives on the reservation of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla & Cupeño Indians and is a tribal member. Chapparosa learned about the program from his Reservation’s accountant who gave him an application. He was drawn to the program because it was a good career path with opportunities to grow and learn. He participated in the program for two years. “The physical work was easy to get accustomed to, but it took a minute to get used to ten-hour days and waking up early,” he reported. Chapparosa has grown to respect fire, when previously he felt more fearful of it. His favorite part of the program was making connections and meeting new people from different tribes and the state parks.
Chapparosa’s story highlights the impact that the program will continue to have on building a workforce for these parks and providing career opportunities for Indigenous communities. Chapparosa was able to receive certifications through the program that helped him build a resume and ultimately apply for and receive a full-time permanent forestry position with California State Parks. He also hopes to take his knowledge back to his reservation, whether through the establishment of a fire station or another program. When asked what he wanted to share about the program, Chapparosa said, “I didn’t even think I was going to be so in love with this job. I don’t know why people don’t like physical work, but I love it. It changed me, it changed a lot. It opened a lot more doors, and they’re still opening.”
Danny McCamish echoed similar highlights about the impact of the program from the California State Parks perspective. “We are bringing people into the unknown and asking them to mold together as a team, to meet people, and to live and abide by different rules or norms than they’re used to. To watch a team move from novice to proficiency, to watch individuals grow... that’s my highlight. Many of the young adults who join us are shy outside of their friend group. To watch them blossom as they spend six to eight months learning these trades and skills, they all come out of it having grown as people.”
