Volunteers provide invaluable service to both the Reserve and the Foundation.  Our ability to use volunteers is in jeopardy as a exemption to the prevailing wage law comes up for renewal.  Your voice supporting an upcoming CA Assembly bill to allow free volunteering is needed.

Click here to send a letter to our Assemblyman Rich Gordon… Paste the message into your email, or print out and send by April 13.

Here’s more information from the California Council of Land Trusts

Protecting Volunteers for Conservation
California and its natural resources would look very different if it were not for the volunteers that plant trees, build trails, restore creeks, enhance wildlife habitat, clear vegetation for neighborhood playgrounds, and build homes for the needy. Giving back to one’s community through volunteerism is a deeply engrained part of the American culture.

Unfortunately, since 2003, we faced a continuous battle to ensure that Californians can freely choose to serve their communities by volunteering. Without a certain provision of state law, projects that receive public funding must pay prevailing wages to all the individuals involved in certain types of work, such as restoration, construction, and other outdoor activities even if they wish to volunteer for free.  No nonprofit could afford to pay wages to all of their volunteers.

The current provision that exempts projects from the prevailing wage law expires at the end of 2011. Since October, California Council of Land Trusts has been working to secure another extension to this exemption in prevailing wage law, and we are sponsoring the bill carried by Assembly Member Gordon. Click here to read AB 587.

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