“Tahoe Strong” Story:

Lake Tahoe is a destination where thousands of visitors come each year to either enjoy the hiking, biking, paddle boarding, skiing, snowboarding or just to enjoy the splendor of the lake. They soak up as much of Lake Tahoe has to offer in their short visit. I too used to be one of the multitudes who enjoyed the beauty that Lake Tahoe has to offer. But today, as I am now a Tahoe resident and District Director of a great CCC center surrounded by the Sierra Nevada’s, my focused has shifted to those young men and women who come to Tahoe, not to enjoy its beauty and splendor, but have been attracted by the CCC Motto of “Hard Work, Low Pay, Miserable Conditions and More”.

These conditions have never been truer in this Tahoe Basin we call home. With a base elevation of 6237 feet, where the Tahoe center is located, it just rises from here in any direction. The project work we do, focuses on fuel hazard reduction on terrain that is uneven, steep, requires hiking in, dropping trees, bucking, dragging and building slash piles to burn in the winter. And let’s not forget the winter, as most folks come to enjoy the winter conditions for fun and frolic and culminate the day with hot coco or other warm beverages.

The corpsmembers here at the Tahoe center work in the snow, in the cold and ice as they continue to drag brush, torch piles to burn, and work in conditions that the normal Tahoe visitor cannot even imaging. Tahoe corpsmembers work in a challenging place, it continues to test their resolve, it builds their character, it forces them to face their hardships and builds a comradery to push each other every day. Here at the Tahoe center, we embrace these conditions and those who succeed, complete a year, accomplish their goals fall into an elite group of corpsmembers that we call “Tahoe Strong”. This center motto signifies the fact that if you can succeed here at Tahoe, you can succeed anywhere.

To the staff and corpsmembers, past and present who have worked here at the Tahoe center (Various locations) until establishing a permanent site in Meyers, have demonstrated that they are and have been “Tahoe Strong".

John Martinez
Former Tahoe District Director
California Conservation Corps
1949 Apache Avenue
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150