Reid Austin has devoted his 20s to kneeling on forest floors and creek beds, removing anything that doesn\u2019t belong: invasive plants, trash, even bullet casings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not glamorous work, but it\u2019s the kind that has to get done,\u201d said Austin, 28, who has spent the last two years as a supervisor at\u00a0Concerned Resource & Environmental Workers<\/a>\u00a0(The C.R.E.W.), an Ojai-based nonprofit that provides paid environmental work and training for young adults.<\/p>\n\n\n That work is part of the\u00a0Samarbejde om milj\u00f8m\u00e6ssig arbejdsstyrke<\/a>\u00a0(EWC), a\u00a0Ventura County Community Foundation<\/a>-led effort supported by Edison International grants \u2014 funded by shareholder dollars from the 2017\/2018 Southern California fires regulatory settlement totaling $3 million over three years. The collaborative brings together five local environmental and community nonprofits to restore fire-impacted landscapes and protect wildlife habitat \u2014 all while helping young people build skills for conservation and wildfire-related careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we see young people spending their days restoring trails, protecting habitats and caring for the land, it\u2019s hard not to feel hopeful,\u201d said Aja Clarke, Edison International director of Corporate Relations and Philanthropy. \u201cIt\u2019s inspiring to support the organizations in this collaborative as they create career pathways while making a tangible difference in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Austin and The C.R.E.W., some days that means pulling mustard, fennel and thistle by hand, or chain sawing red gum eucalyptus tree branches at the Upper San Antonio Creek watershed. The invasive plants crowd out native species and add fuel during fire season. In the last year, the team cleared more than 300 acres of hazardous brush across multiple projects.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cIt’s rewarding to see how we’ve left a place better than we found it,\u201d Austin said. \u201cIt’s even better to work alongside people who care about improving the environment and get the chance to put it to action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The C.R.E.W. is now helping\u00a0Los Padres ForestWatch<\/a>\u00a0clear out decades of debris left behind at\u00a0old target-shooting sites<\/a>\u00a0in the Los Padres National Forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe’re pulling lead fragments from the ground by the bucketful,\u201d said Ben Pitterle, ForestWatch director of advocacy and field operations. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of painstaking work, and having The C.R.E.W. out there with us means we can remove more of that contamination from places that matter for wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Together, the groups removed 1,700 pounds of lead waste from a watershed that supports important wildlife habitat, including endangered\u00a0California condors<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n Whether teams are removing lead from forest soil or clearing out invasive plants, each project helps build a brighter future for both the land and the people caring for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur job is to get our teams a better job,\u201d said Derek Poultney, executive director of The C.R.E.W. \u201cIf they leave us, we see that as a success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Austin has seen that success play out in his time with The C.R.E.W., watching members apply skills to their next jobs like wildland firefighting and other outdoor careers. Now, it\u2019s his turn: He\u2019s accepted a full-time position as a land steward with the\u00a0Ventura Land Trust<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m taking everything I\u2019ve learned from these projects with me,\u201d said Austin. \u201cThe work I\u2019ve done on The C.R.E.W. and through EWC opened that door. I get to keep caring for the places that have taught me so much.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Edison helps the next generation of environmental stewards protect habitats and reduce wildfire risk. This article was originally published on Energized by Edison. Read the full article on their website.…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-coverage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24625"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24673,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24625\/revisions\/24673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/vccf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ReidAustin1_mid-1024x626.jpg\")
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