Cerro Coso and Mono County unveil regional outdoor recreation workforce pathway

Cerro Coso Community College and Mono County officials told supervisors they have developed a regional workforce pathway designed to train and place residents into outdoor‑recreation, forestry and wildland fire jobs across the Eastern Sierra.

"What we ended up finding was things like conservation technician, forestry technician, where the seasonal firefighting fits in," Peter Fox, department chair at Cerro Coso, said, describing the four‑year effort to survey regional job needs and align curriculum with employer skills. He told the board the program includes 55 new courses across five pathways, three certificates and two associate degrees and has articulation agreements with CSU campuses.

The Sustainable Outdoor Recreation Leadership (SOARL) initiative combines classroom theory, industry certifications (wilderness first responder, Leave No Trace) and applied field labs such as multi‑day backpacking capstones. Peter Fox said the curriculum is cross‑listed so students can receive physical‑education credit while also earning job‑relevant skills.

Marcella Rose, Mono County’s Sustainable Recreation Superintendent, described county internship pilots and a paid/unpaid internship structure developed with HR and risk management: paid internships as employees focused on mentorship and unpaid internships as structured volunteer placements. The county currently pilots an intern, Stephanie Urbanwolf, in data management and kiosk language development, and the county is exploring grant funding and housing/transportation supports to increase participation.

Board members praised the program’s potential to provide career pathways, retain locals and support understaffed land‑management agencies. Supervisor McFarland called the effort “a pathway to bring that back” in terms of middle‑class land‑management jobs; Supervisor Peters suggested adding coursework on public‑lands policy and federal or state program internships to broaden the pipeline into agency and policy careers.

The college and county said they are pursuing roughly $3 million in grant proposals this year and noted private‑sector and nonprofit partners (MLTPA, Eastern Sierra Foundation, Mammoth Lakes Recreation) for equipment and placement. The board encouraged continued partner outreach and urged staff to keep the supervisors informed as the program scales.