Program Description: To further expand forestry corps and fire crews the CCC is expanding and enhancing the Residential Program. With housing insecurities, lack of affordable housing, homelessness, and other social factors that can impact vulnerable youth, expanding residential program does not only promote Corpsmembers’ wellbeing, but also enhances the communities in which they serve. Most residential locations are in rural locations where population numbers couldn’t field 4-6 youth crews. Additionally, Corpsmembers experiencing new communities embodies the inclusive nature of the CCC. Residential locations also help with fire or other emergency response time as the Corpsmembers are available and ready throughout the entire day, seven days a week.

Program Impact: Opening of the new residential dorms and kitchen complex at the Placer Center located in Auburn, CA enabled 90 Corpsmembers to return to that community and complete very meaningful fuel reduction work. It has also provided a quicker response time for two Type I fire crews working out of the residential facility as they are there 24 hours a day.

This investment is launching capital development projects for building residential facilities for new fuel and fire crews at the CCC Auberry and Los Piños facilities.

Program Impact: Working closely with DGS plans and specifications for both the Los Piños and Auberry projects are being developed with anticipated completion of Preliminary Plans in June and April 2023, respectively.

Resilience in Action:

1. Placer Center Tour Note the linked video highlights the completed construction and the Corpsmember experience as of Fall 2022.
2. Los Piños Center Tour: The linked video highlights the facility and the project work.

Completed Placer Center dormitory building.

Program Description: Diverting forest residues for productive use can help increase the pace and scale of forest restoration efforts in California, reducing vulnerability to wildfire, supporting rural economic development, and promoting carbon storage. The Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan identifies the development of, and access to, markets for these residues as a key barrier to conducting necessary treatment activities across priority landscapes in the state. The development of such a market for residues has been hampered by the lack of any centralized broker capable of entering into long-term feedstock supply contracts.

To address this challenge, OPR has funded five pilot projects to develop regional strategies to establish reliable access to forest biomass through a variety of feedstock aggregation mechanisms and organizational innovations. The pilots will develop plans to improve feedstock supply chain logistics within each target region through the deployment of a special district with the authority and resources to aggregate biomass and facilitate long-term feedstock contracts. Each pilot will assess market conditions, evaluate infrastructure needs, and work to enhance economic opportunities for biomass businesses in their project regions. The pilots are distributed across 17 counties in the Central Sierra, Lake Tahoe Basin, Northeast California, North Coast and Marin County.

Program Impact: In Fiscal Year 2021-2022, OPR was appropriated $3 million from the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Early Action Package (SB 85), to support the development of five feedstock aggregation pilot projects. In Fiscal Year 2022-2023, OPR was provided an additional appropriation of $2 million under AB 179, to enhance forest sector market development and to facilitate implementation of the pilot projects.

In 2022, OPR awarded $2.5 million to launch the pilots through five grants, each in the amount of $500,000 to Fall River RCD, Marin RCD, County of Humboldt, Placer County Water Agency, and Mariposa County RCD. An additional $350,000 was awarded to the University of California at Davis, Cal Poly Humboldt and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to produce a digital marketplace, using remote sensing data and artificial intelligence, in an enhanced web application to coordinate biomass aggregation and to facilitate an online exchange between buyers and sellers of forest biomass within the OPR pilot project regions.

At present, OPR is in the process of updating project scopes and amending each grant agreement to provide additional funding to finance implementation of the pilots and to complete the construction of the web application.

Resilience in Action: Through the deployment of the pilots, OPR is supporting capacity building within local governments to improve landscape resilience to wildfire, increase forest biomass aggregation and enhance market development for wood products. The development of the OPR pilot program has sent a strong demand signal to the market not only in California but across the country and around the world. In response to these strategic planning activities, OPR has received strong interest from the biomass industry ranging from biofuels, bioenergy, biochar, CLT and mass timber producers. In anticipation of the OPR pilots and their project activities, a dozen or more biomass industry members have been actively coordinating with OPR, GO-Biz and I-Bank to evaluate project sites and secure funding for biomass facilities within the five OPR pilot project regions. These businesses have expressed strong interest in investment opportunities that otherwise would not be financially feasible without the feedstock aggregation activities under development within the OPR pilots. Based upon the interest expressed through biomass business inquires at GO-Biz, the project has sent a strong demand signal to the biomass industry that California is ramping up and creating an attractive economic environment to drive sustainable forest management and increase community fire resilience benefits.

Program Description: Businesses in the forestry sector face real challenges raising capital in the private lending market. Creating lower-interest loans removes a major market barrier and expands critical businesses in this sector from micro-mills to masticators to innovative wood and energy products. The Climate Catalyst Fund was established with early action funds in 2020-21 to help jumpstart private sector equipment using wood and woody material removed from forests for wildfire resilience.

Program Impact: Capital was provided in the fall of 2021, along with a crucial legislative change to enable IBank to receive the funds appropriated in 2020-21 and 2021-22. The program was then formally launched in January 2022 and is actively looking at transactions. IBank’s Catalyst Fund team is in advanced lending discussions with six project developers, each one of which is bringing significant private capital to the transaction alongside the state’s investment. Because of the presences of these outside investors, each project negotiation exhibits its own particular complexities – these deals take time, certainly more so than grant allocations do. In addition to Catalyst Fund activity, IBank is working alongside CAL FIRE to support the agency’s financing of projects in the biomass utilization sector, and is leveraging its small business loan guarantee program to encourage community-scale lenders to invest in this sector. IBank continues to support market growth by utilizing other state and federal funding mechanisms where individual transactions allow, and by connecting businesses, NGOs, and public entities in this sector to IBANK’s broader network of financing resources.

Resilience in Action: With the combination of appropriated funding and legislative authorization for IBank to receive and deploy capital, IBank leadership was able to seek and ultimately receive IBank Board approval to launch the program in January 2022. In 2022, , IBank received more than 40 expressions of interest in receiving loans or guarantees from the Climate Catalyst Fund. The IBank staff is currently reviewing expressions of interest, working with entities across the state to support the advancement of projects, and engaging third-party capital partners to further leverage state dollars.

Program Description: The Urban and Community Forestry Program leads the effort to expand urban forests in California. From mitigating extreme heat, reducing greenhouse gasses, and improving local air, soil, and water quality, to providing an environment better for mental and physical health and wellbeing, trees improve the quality of life in urban environments where 95% of Californians live. Urban forests are crucial for community resilience and the UCF Program helps create more sustainable urban forests by planting trees, improving regional and local policies, building partnerships, expanding the tree care industry workforce, and supporting education and outreach. The program offers grants for several urban forestry related purposes including urban tree canopy expansion, improved urban forest management, education and workforce development, creating healthier and more natural schoolyards, and urban wood and biomass utilization. There is a very strong emphasis on serving disadvantaged communities, as they are nearly always the communities with the lowest canopy cover and fewest urban forest resources.

Program Impact: With the wildfire resilience funding, the Urban and Community Forestry Program awarded 40 new grants (2021-22-grant-awards_web.pdf (ca.gov)), which will plant more than 37,000 trees, reduce greenhouse gases by nearly 173,000 metric tons annually, and provide workforce development by training, educating, and/or assisting in job placement for more than 1,000 individuals in urban forestry programs. An overview of the Urban and Community Forestry Program grants program is available at, Urban and Community Forestry Grant Programs (ca.gov).

Resilience in Action: The Oakland based non-profit, Planting Justice developed partnerships with the City of Oakland, Alameda County, University of California Davis, and the City of Sacramento for an Urban Forestry Education and Workforce Development grant with total project funding of nearly $3 million (grant funding of $1,453,495; matching $1,458,995). The project is focused on training, education, and job placement for formerly incarcerated and at-risk individuals from black, indigenous and people of color populations to work in urban nursery production. The grant allows Planting Justice to hire and train 15 additional staff for established programs and expand its service area from Alameda County to include a satellite facility in the Sacramento region. This project builds on the $28 million Transformative Climate Communities grant in east Oakland which produced a multitude of community benefits as documented in the “Going Deep” video presented at the Catalyst Conference February 2023.

Keta Price presenting “Going Deep” documentary

CAL FIRE Urban Forester plants trees with students during a community event. 

Program Description: The California Conservation Corps operates more than two dozen wildland firefighting hand crews. These fire hand crews operate at 15 CCC locations across California. The CCC partners with CAL FIRE, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Parks Service to provide hand crews to fight and prevent wildland fires throughout the state.

In 2021, the Legislature and administration approved funding for 8 permanent (“year-round”) and 6 seasonal CCC-CAL FIRE crews. This partnership addresses the state’s need for increased firefighting capacity and workforce development. The effect is two-fold: in the off season, greater fuels work is completed; and during fire season, there are more crews for fire and emergency response. Altogether, these crews work toward decreasing the impact of, if not preventing, catastrophic wildfires.

Program Impact:

In 2021, and per the Fire Resiliency package, the CCC onboarded the following fire crews:
Year-round: Delta (2), Tahoe (2), Los Piños (2)
Seasonal: Fortuna (1), Monterey (Watsonville) (1), Pomona (1), Redding (1), San Diego (1), and Ukiah/Willits (1)

In 2022, and per the Fire Resiliency package, the CCC funded the following fire crews:
Year-round: Los Piños (2*), Ukiah/Willits (2*), Monterey (Watsonville) (1), Pomona (1), San Diego (1), and Fresno (1)
Seasonal: Fortuna (1) and Redding (1)

*The second Ukiah/Willits crew and the two Los Piños crews have been delayed and are expected to be fully implemented in the spring of 2023.

Resilience in Action:

1. Between July 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, the CCC had 46 Corpsmembers transition out of the CCC into jobs related to fire, forestry, or arborist-related careers.
2. 2021 – Together, these 12 crews went on 260 dispatches to a total of 166 incidents. They were assigned to these incidents for an aggregated 1,121 days. Corpsmembers from these crews had 191,071 emergency project hours. This does not count hours that were not invoiced (e.g., several single day fires that were extinguished within the regular workday).
3. 2022 – Together, the seven crews funded in 2022 went on 85 dispatches to a total of 66 incidents, so far in the current fiscal year. They were assigned to these incidents for an aggregated 253 days. Corpsmembers from these crews have 46,482 emergency project hours.

Program Description: CAL FIRE offers grant funding through its Workforce Development Grant program to applicants seeking to increase California’s workforce capacity in the fields of logging, fuels treatment, forest sector transportation, forest sector manufacturing, or other forest sector support services. Research and Development ancillary to the workforce development topics discussed may also be funded.

Program Impact: CAL FIRE has 20 grant agreements totaling $38 million with partners who are doing workforce training. These programs are offering training to 1,200+ participants annually in forest-sector fields including prescribed fire, forestry, firefighting, heavy equipment and logging operations, teacher education, and peer-to-peer business learning. Students leave these programs with qualifications that range from college degrees to fellowships, certificates, mentoring, and apprentice work experience. CAL FIRE is currently soliciting additional projects and has received broad interest in furthering workforce development training in forest-sector fields.

Resilience in Action: The Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP) is a 510(c)(3) that provides career support to those who have been in, or are returning home from, California’s Conservation Camps (i.e., “Fire Camp”) and are interested in careers in the wildland and/or forestry sector. Their mission is to increase wildfire personnel from non-traditional and underrepresented communities, providing then with the training, skills, resources, and experiences needed to secure gainful, living-wage employment while providing immediate fire prevention services throughout California.

Program Description: The California Conservation Corps Forestry Corps program trains youth in a year-long program in forest resilience. Often recruiting from lower income or vulnerable communities, these young men and women sign up for a year of service and training. These fuel reduction crews assist local departments, cities, counties in completing priority fuel reduction projects to reduce wildfire risk in fire-threatened areas. Often elbow-deep in poison oak and working in long-hot conditions, Forestry Corpsmembers remove hazardous fuels to reduce wildfire risk and re-plants trees to recover after a fire, while gaining valuable work experience in the climate and green industries.

Program Impact: The Pomona Forestry Corps has contributed greatly to the mitigation of wildfire with their fuel reduction and fire recovery projects. Santa Fe Dam’s nature center had an issue with overgrown pepper trees that could serve as ladder fuels, so the Pomona crew significantly reduced the fuel load on two acres of land. William S. Hart Park in Hollywood had a similar issue with oak trees and oleander before the Forestry Corps arrived and brushed another two acres of overgrowth. The Pomona crew assisted Big Basin State Park to reopen after the CZU Lightning Complex Fire by cutting and brushing along 20 miles of trail. Most recently, the crew has been reducing the amount of hazard trees and ladder fuels at Monrovia Canyon Park in the burn scar of the 2020 Bobcat fire. All Forestry Corps members have been trained in using chainsaws and most have completed S-212 training through CALFIRE BDU. There are plans for Forestry Corpsmembers to receive additional training from CALFIRE, including CALFIRE Hazmat First Responder Operational and 1C. Five Corpsmembers have transitioned into the center’s fire crew so far; one Corpsmember received arborist training; and two Corpsmembers have been selected for Hotshot crews in California ahead of this fire season. Pomona Forestry Corps has allowed Corpsmembers to have an impact across the state and prepared them for fruitful careers in fire and forestry.

The Chico Forestry crew has been hard at to work in both the classroom and out on projects. Many Corpsmembers have completed a five-week utility arborist training through our building partnership with Butte College; to date, this course has been taught twice. The crew also has been able to receive Basic CALFIRE fire training on two separate occasions. This has enabled the crew to take part in planned prescribed fire incidents on the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER) and in Chico’s Upper Bidwell Park. The Big Chico Ecological Reserve is our Forestry Crew’s main project partner. We have completed many project hours reducing fire hazard fuels and invasive plant species on the Reserve. The crew is currently conducting two spikes in the Big Basin State Park completing fuels work.

The Greenwood CCC Forestry Corps has treated more than 200 acres and removed more than 317 trees since July 2022 on projects at Greenwood, Tahoe, and Pollock Pines. During the summer, the crew was also assigned to several fires including the McKinney Fire, Mill Fire, Mountain Fire, Barnes Fire, and Mosquito Fire. They have also participated in several trainings including the CALFIRE 1C fire training, chipper safety training, flood training, basic chainsaw training, beginner tree climbing training, and basic and intermediate faller training. Most of the crew will be completing their Forestry Certificate from Lake Tahoe Community College in June 2023.

To further expand the California Natural Resources Agency’s core commitments to embedding equity, environmental justice, and tribal affairs, aGreenwood Forestry Corpsmember served as the first CCC Equity Corpsmember (CCC-ECM) to support the development of a policy white paper on providing inclusive language in our Agency’s operations, practices, and procedures.

Resilience in Action:

Chico Forestry Corps:

The utility line arborist training the Crewmembers received through Butte College is invaluable and opened pathways for employment with tree companies. The Corpsmembers who attended received Certificates of Training in OSHA-10, certified flagger, Electrical Hazard Awareness Program, and aerial rescue.

To further expand the California Natural Resources Agency’s core commitments to embedding equity, environmental justice, and tribal affairs in all that we do, Alex Lima (Greenwood Forestry Corpsmember) served as the first CCC Equity Corpsmember (CCC-ECM) to support the development of a policy white paper on providing inclusive language in our Agency’s operations, practices, and procedures. Alex also supported the Assistant Secretary for Equity and Environmental Justice, the assistant Secretary for Tribal Affairs, and the Office of the Secretary in their efforts to further embed equity across the Agency, including but not limited to, supporting existing roundtables, and the relevant tribal affairs work stemming from the CA Advisory Committee on Geographic Names outside from his main projects, Alex also:

• Provided Language support to Secretary Wade Crowfoot for his 2022 CalFire Silver Medal/ Gold Medal award presentation speeches
• Organized technical changes to CNRA agencies/Equity action plans
• Created initial web map outline for CRNA Equity and Environmental Justice home web page
• Edited short films to support Latino Heritage Month career day and the Secretary Crowfoot Speaker series