Founder’s desk
28 February, 2025
Reimagining Fire and Forestry Work in Trump-Vance’s America
In February, funding and hiring freezes, and mass layoffs, affected all fire and forestry related agencies as the Trump-Vance administration brings “workforce optimization” to the federal government’s functioning.
Paradoxically, these Executive Orders come on the heels of one of America’s costliest disasters in modern history–the devastating LA County fires. Ongoing trends in wildfire impacts necessitate an expanded, cross-trained, and year-round fire and forestry workforce across all levels of partnership.
As we brace for system-wide impacts from the federal shake up, it’s clear the pace and scale of fire and forestry work must continue to make progress through new kinds of local and regional partnerships.
State, local, and Tribal partners must work towards forging stronger and sustained alliances including with non-profits, community based organizations, philanthropy, private companies, small businesses, community colleges, universities, and volunteer networks.
Moreover, state agencies must begin to invest in programs that are innovative, future-ready, and tech-forward, developed in partnership with private industry, small businesses, and community-based organizations working on the frontlines of wildfire resilience efforts.
Such investments can spur worker-owned and worker-led industries––in wildfire risk assessment, home hardening, defensible space, fuels reduction, prescribed burns, woody mass industries, biofuels, timber, fire detection and response, insurance, smoke management, clean air structures, post-disaster reconstruction, and restoration.
Capital for such programs can be blended in ways that enable worker-owned cooperatives to address the workforce gap and foster resilient community infrastructure, including family-sustaining housing. This, in turn, can generate new local industries—not only in wood products but also in related products and services that can spur a much larger wildfire resilience economy to the benefit of communities and counties.
Investment in wildfire resilience must be considered a public good: an investment in workers, community infrastructure, and local industry. Initiatives such as the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), developed by Blue Forest and the World Resources Institute, Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation’s Forest Futures Program, the Sierra Forest Entrepreneurs Program, CAL FIRE’s workforce and business development grants, and California’s Climate Catalyst Revolving Loan Fund, provide precedents for public-private-people-philanthropic partnerships to bring novel solutions to the cascading wildfire crisis.
Most urgently, FireUp stands ready to assist ex-federal workers to transition to new roles with diverse employers, including state and local agencies, private companies, and non-profits across the nation.
Reach out if you have questions about entry points or how to get started. FireUp is hosting monthly Career Days (our next networking event is on 11 April) and Job Fairs (our next recruitment event is on 28 March) to attract and retain a transitioning workforce ready to bring transferrable skills and be cross-trained for wildfire preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery management.
In partnership,
Shefali