January 2008 Corpsmember of the Month

Maria Lourdes Najera-Poot

Supervisor: Sarah Welch, Natural Resources Crew Supervisor

Crew: Natural Resources Crew 4

Length of time at CCNB: 1 year, 1 month

Reason corpsmember was selected: Always an outstanding corpsmember, Lourdes shined in the month of January. With several large floods that occurred in Marin County, CCNB was called upon to respond to these floods in the early hours of the morning and the weekends. Lourdes worked more hours on flood response than any other person in CCNB for the month of January. She is a leader on Crew 4, and always offers a hand to the other people on the crew. Every day she shows up early, ready to work. A strong, compassionate, mature, intelligent woman, she has earned the respect of her fellow crew members and the CCNB staff.

Skills training received at CCNB: Lourdes has earned Sawyer I, Sawyer II, and Chipper certificates. She has received training in willow wall installation, trail maintenance, flood control and response, and fire fuel reduction techniques. Her English is improving daily.

Leadership roles at CCNB: Field Education Facilitator

Favorite project: Doing trail maintenance in the mountains, particularly at Carson Falls. She enjoys the hike, and being in the natural world.

Favorite educational component: Maria joined CCNB without the ability to read a word of English. She enjoys her new English language skills and loves to practice reading in English.

Favorite aspect of working at CCNB: Lourdes truly appreciates being given the opportunity to learn English, new work skills, and conservation of the environment.

Future plans: Lourdes hopes to find work similar to what she’s been doing at CCNB. She also wants to show all the contractors out there that she can do any job as well as a man. People say that because we’re women, we can’t do this type of physical work. But we can.”