01 WELCOME
From kindergarten to careers: free environmental education for students, conservation training and paid work for teens and young adults, and professional wildfire protection for the Ojai Valley region.
The Ojai Valley’s conservation
corps since 1991
IN PARTNERSHIP
U.S. Forest Service
Channel Islands National Park
CAL FIRE
California State Coastal Conservancy
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
County of Ventura
City of Ojai
Ojai Valley Land Conservancy
02 ABOUT C.R.E.W.
Our first line of defense
Since 1991, C.R.E.W. has paired work the land needs with opportunities young people need.
We’re an Ojai nonprofit bringing together paid conservation crews, youth-led environmental projects, and free watershed education for local schools.
03 OUR IMPACT
Long-term benefits for central coast communities
THE CORPS
YOUNG PEOPLE HIRED
Paid conservation work, ages 14 to 25. That’s about the number of students in the Ojai Unified School District.
RESTORATION
NATIVE PLANTS GROWN AND PLANTED
By Green Valley Project youth since 2020. That’s more than one plant a day, on average.
WATERSHED EDUCATION
STUDENTS IN ONE YEAR
Once Upon a Watershed in 2022, with 49 teachers at 15 schools. That’s about 90 students at each school.
WILDFIRE SAFETY
ACRES IMPACTED BY FIRE PREVENTION PROJECTS
23 projects, 2020 to 2024. That’s more than seven times the area of the City of Ojai. The square shows the two to scale.
TO SCALE
The square represents the total area those projects impacted, drawn as one shape for comparison. The green shape is the City of Ojai at the same scale.
Drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau boundary of the city, 2020 Census.
AREA IMPACTED, TO SCALE22,000 acres, 5.9 miles on a side
CITY OF OJAI4.36 square miles
1 MILE
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04 OUR PEOPLE
The next generation makes it possible
Many C.R.E.W. members grow up in the Ojai Valley region, and the three programs are built so one person can move through all of them.
The same person can plant acorns at the Ojai Meadows Preserve with Once Upon a Watershed, present a Youth Council project to the City Council with the Green Valley Project, and later clear a senior’s property on the East End with a Field Corps crew, using chainsaws and a chipper, free of charge.
From there, alumni have gone on to careers in wildland fire and conservation.
05 YOUR ROLE
A lifetime of stewardship can start now
Once Upon a Watershed can give your 4th grade class its first of many field trips to your local ‘shed.
At 13 you can join a Green Valley Project Youth Council, and at 14 you can start on the Junior Field Team, paid from the first day of training.
At 18 you can move up to a Field Corps crew.
Teachers, parents, and volunteers have their own way in, too.
06 SUPPORT C.R.E.W.
Your gift becomes a paycheck, an enriching field day, or a stand of oaks
A gift to the Field Corps pays wages, chainsaw and first aid certifications, gear, insurance, and the rest of what keeps a crew in the field.
A gift to Once Upon a Watershed keeps the lessons free, field days included.
A gift to the Green Valley Project pays for the plants, tools, and staff its Youth Councils need.
Give to one program, to all three, or to C.R.E.W. as a whole.
07 READING LIST
What we're reading.
Articles, research, and reporting we think are worth your time.
CrewCuts
