Utah Conservation Corps Responds to Flooding in Beaver
Members of the Utah Conservation Corps at a flooding cleanup site in Beaver, Utah.
BEAVER, Utah — After the Cottonwood Fire burned almost 100,000 acres in southwest Utah and subsequent rains caused flooding in the City of Beaver, Utah Conservation Corps members completed two weeks of disaster response projects in August.
Twenty-three members of Utah Conservation Corps, an AmeriCorps program within the Utah State University Center for Community Engagement, removed 441 cubic yards of debris and 31 hazard trees on 16 properties. AmeriCorps members mucked & gutted an additional two residences that had major flood damage. The project was in collaboration with with UServeUtah and the Utah Division of Emergency Management.
Utah Conservation Corps has been responding to natural disasters with AmeriCorps Disaster Services Unit since 2006, and this was the first major response it has completed in Utah. The Beaver response team included AmeriCorps members from the Logan area who were affected by the July 31 blaze and were eager to assist others suffering from disaster.
“It’s never easy seeing someone else struggle,” said crew member Hayden Watts, but the experience “shows the power that exists in coming together as a community.”
Greg Bates, associate director with UServeUtah, Utah's Commission on Service and Volunteerism, said: “The Utah Conservation Corps has been a powerful resource for maintaining our state's public lands over the past 25 years. Seeing the impact that post-fire flooding had on families in the Beaver area was heartbreaking and hit very close to home. I served alongside the Utah Conservation Corps AmeriCorps members for the first week. I was inspired by the way they connected with the experience and those they served.”
Since 2001, more than 3,400 Utah Conservation Corps AmeriCorps members have served 2.3 million hours, creating or maintaining nearly 5,500 miles of trail and almost 700 miles of fence, restoring approximately 93,000 acres of public land and reaching about 600,000 students and individuals with environmental education. For more information about the Utah Conservation Corps, please visit www.usu.edu/ucc.
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