OUTCOME: Capacity

Problem

The region has inadequate educational and training programs (including paid apprenticeships and on-the-job training) to build the needed stewardship workforce. Prospective employees find job opportunities hard to identify and access, and employers struggle to find workers for open positions or to expand their capacity. There is not a clear pathway from entry-level field-based work to career-track positions with benefits, pensions, and a living wage.

Solution

Workforce Development - Develop and expand education, training, and apprenticeship opportunities to build and sustain a local and regional trained workforce to grow the stewardship economy.

Background and Context

Over the past 30 years the decline of the timber and fishing industries, along with economic stagnation in rural areas, has resulted in a dislocation of the forestry and natural resource workforce and a lack of well-paying, career-track, jobs with benefits. The North Coast region now lacks enough trained natural resource professionals, managers, technicians, heavy equipment operators, and other workers to complete currently needed fire hazard reduction and ecosystem management and restoration activities, grow the forest products sector, and increase the pace, scope, and scale of these activities into the future. One result is the inability to achieve ecosystem and community resilience goals, even if funding is available. Another result is contractors and consultants being hired from out of the area, which ultimately transfers money out of the local economy.

“The emerging climate-resilient landscapes sector has the potential to grow into a $39 billion industry with 177,000 jobs in California. There are projected shortages of 6,000 fire managers, 4,000 conservation scientists and foresters, 7,000 loggers, and 1,500 utility line clearance technicians, all of which are well-paying jobs with benefits. The magnitude and urgency of the need for skilled workers and the potential for growth calls for disruptive innovation in how workforce training programs collaborate with industry.” – Fire Reduction, Response, and Restoration Careers are the Path Forward – Sierra Business Council

Limited training and education programs within the region hinder the development of a reliable local workforce to grow the stewardship economy. When programs are not available through local high schools, community colleges, job training programs, and apprenticeships, students seeking a career path and adults looking for good jobs may be unaware of natural resource management career opportunities, or may be unable to obtain qualifications they need to pursue careers in the field. There are not enough nontraditional and adult education programs, ELL programs focused on natural resource management, and workforce diversification initiatives to grow and expand the workforce. Once they have gotten entry-level jobs and training and are ready to move up the career pathway, the lack of high-wage jobs with benefits and pensions causes many young people to leave the field or leave the region for opportunities elsewhere.

K-8 Science and the Workforce Pipeline

In California, K-8 science education includes curricula on human-ecosystem interactions, but the focus is primarily on negative interactions such as natural disasters, species extinction, deforestation, and human-caused climate change. TEK and Indigenous knowledge and practices are largely ignored. Wildfire is framed as a negative force rather than an important ecological process, and hands-on forest management practices such as thinning are either not addressed or are framed in a negative light. In addition, agriculture and forest product use have been largely removed as curricular elements. This implicitly teaches students that human management of forest ecosystems is unnecessary at best and detrimental at worst.

Developing a stewardship workforce pipeline should begin early, by integrating evidence-based ecosystem stewardship curricula into classroom instruction and co-curricular activities with the intention of helping students to develop a healthier relationship with fire and ecosystem management practices. Educators and CBOs should develop up-to-date curricula for all grade levels that promote stewardship of ecosystems in an ecologically, socially, and economically beneficial way. CBOs, universities, agencies, and industry groups should host trainings to provide teachers with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to effectively teach ecosystem stewardship and management concepts. Hands-on co-curricular programs related to ecosystem stewardship and management should be developed or expanded to increase student engagement and awareness of the ecosystems around them and the natural resource management careers available to them.

Recommendations

Increasing the local stewardship workforce requires increasing education and training opportunities and creating a clear, accessible pathway for local students and adults to attain qualifications to work in this field. Working with the existing workforce development organizations and infrastructure in northern California and with regional partners, NCRP will evaluate current programs and make recommendations to support growth, expansion, and connection between currently siloed sections of the workforce development and education and training sectors in the region. Training programs informed by projected local needs for year-round workforce capacity should be developed and expanded in secondary and post-secondary institutions, as well as adult and Tribal education and job training programs, to ensure multiple points of entry into the forestry and natural resource management workforce. Strong partnerships should be developed between training programs and employers to create a pipeline to good jobs for local trainees, including support for costs of on-the-job training by prospective employers.

Efforts should be expanded to diversify the natural resource workforce by investing in programs that focus recruitment on and provide mentoring for women, Tribal members, immigrants, post-incarcerated individuals, and other underrepresented groups. Some of these groups may benefit from programs that provide mentoring, English language learning, digital literacy, management training, and wraparound services such as assistance with housing, health care, child care, transportation, and other needs.

Actions

  • Evaluate existing and potential workforce capacity and needed future capacity, and generate resources that link prospective workers to employers.
  • Evaluate and publicize existing natural resource management education, apprenticeship, and job training programs and help connect them to each other and with employers.
  • Advocate for creation and expansion of career-track positions with living wage, benefits, pensions, etc. for all workers in the stewardship economy.

Create a working group/steering committee made up of regional economic development experts, potential employers, workforce development experts, and curriculum experts to guide and coordinate the Workforce Development Strategy.

Convene a North Coast Region Forestry Education & Workforce Summit to bring together forestry education, workforce development, and local businesses for peer learning and program development and expansion.

Work with secondary schools to develop and expand Career Technical Education (CTE) programs within the secondary school system.

Work with post-secondary institutions to develop and expand CTE programs for natural resource and ancillary fields at the post-secondary (community college and college) level, including degree and certification programs.

Work with regional partners to create a pipeline between secondary and post-secondary institutions and local natural resource employers.

Scale up and expand existing apprenticeship, internship, and on-the-job training programs and partner with local secondary and post-secondary institutions to recruit local participants, including traditionally underrepresented groups in the natural resource management field.

Develop new and support existing regional and/or county-scale Forestry and Fire Programs that integrate career development non-profits, governmental wildfire fuel reduction agencies (CAL FIRE and local fire departments), and the local community colleges (See RFFC Demonstration Project Fire School Pilot Program at Lake Sonoma & Dry Creek – Circuit Rider Community Services).

Develop pre-apprenticeship programs that include supportive social services for individuals with barriers to entering traditional apprenticeship or job training programs (see American Forests Arboriculture Pre-Apprenticeship Program as a model)

Support establishment of a USFS Job Corps Civilian Conservations Center in the North Coast region and fund and support expansion of other service corps for young adults that provide work experience and training in forestry or natural resources and placement of service corps members in the North Coast region (i.e., GrizzlyCorps, Climate Corps).

Connect apprenticeship and training programs into Qualified Contractors Pool and support local contractors who hire trainees (See Capacity – Private Workforce Solution).

Support workforce development programs and job placement for adults, including English Language Learners, post-incarcerated individuals, and other traditionally underrepresented groups. Ensure that such programs include mentoring and wraparound support services to ensure participant success.

Support expansion of career mentorship programs focused on supporting a diverse workforce, modelled on the Forestry and Natural Resources Career Mentorship Program.

Invest in the stabilization of Tribal field institute programs and encourage partnerships with academic institutions for the purposes of workforce development and delivery of TEK based environmental education pathways (See Karuk Pikyav (To Fix It) Field Institute).

Support development of evidence-based forest ecology curriculum into in-classroom instruction at all grade levels, including curricular and co-curricular programs.

Support training for teachers to effectively teach forest ecology and management practices.

Support career development opportunities, networking, and training in advanced skills for people working in natural resource roles across the region (See Capacity – Professional Development Solution).

References and Resources

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