08/31/2026
For more than three decades, the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and the California Conservation Corps have worked together through the Backcountry Trails Program to keep our forest and wilderness areas accessible to the public.
CCC crews, under the guidance of Forest Service trails and wilderness employees, spend five months living in the backcountry repairing, maintaining and building trails.
CCC crew members gain valuable experience in land management and stewardship, often leading them to public lands careers.
In turn, the Forest benefits from having a beefed-up workforce in the field completing more work than what could otherwise be accomplished in a single season.
“No other program in the United States matches the scale and continuous duration of these crews operating within federally designated wilderness areas,” said Aaron McBride, wilderness and trails manager for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Working together, the Forest Service and the CCC are rehabilitating the Sugar Pine Lake Trail in the Trinity Alps Wilderness, damaged by wildfire in the 2021 River Complex fires – one of many projects this partnership has undertaken over the years.
Day by day, the CCC and the Forest Service are working together to make these trails a safer and more enjoyable journey for future Trinity Alps visitors while building the next generation of public lands professionals.
📸Forest Service photos and video by Bob Doucette, showing California Conservation Corps and Forest Service trail workers rehabilitating the Sugar Pine Lake Trail on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
