Community-Led Beneficial Fire Continues to Grow in California

August 6, 2026 – The Watershed Research and Training Center recently added 2025 data to its Community-Based Beneficial Fire Data Project which compiles and analyzes data from beneficial fire burning activities across the state of California. The project is demonstrating how California is strengthening its partnerships and expanding workforce development capacity for cultural and prescribed fire. 2025 was an active year for the community-based beneficial fire movement. Across California, Tribal cultural fire practitioners, Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs), nonprofit organizations, Resource Conservation Districts, agencies, and private landowners are continuing to build the relationships, skills, and policies needed to return good fire to the landscape. In 2024 and 2025, nearly 9,500 people participated in training events focused on prescribed fire, cultural burning, ecological restoration, and land stewardship. During the same period, community partners completed more than 1,280 prescribed and cultural burns, treating over 9,100 acres while engaging nearly 16,000 participants.