Youth are the future of wildfire management
By Mary Kyle McCurdy. | 4-minute read
Living more safely with wildfire in Oregon—now and in the future—requires integrating two critical elements into our communities: establishing defensible space around homes, structures, and neighborhoods; and using wildfire-resilient building materials when constructing new structures or remodeling existing ones.
While establishing defensible space is something many people can do on their own property, there are those who can’t. Plus, defensible space needs to be incorporated around infrastructure (like water lines), critical buildings (like hospitals and schools), and entire neighborhoods and communities. It’s not clear who would do that. Finally, defensible space must be maintained. Thankfully, Oregon has a relatively little-known but effective program to help: the Oregon Conservation Corps.
Senate Bill 762 (2021) established the Oregon Conservation Corps (OCC) within the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) directed it to focus on three core tasks:
- Reducing the risk wildfire poses to communities and critical infrastructure;
- Helping to create fire-adapted communities; and
- Engaging youth and young adults in wildfire-related workforce training
Over the past four years, the OCC has accomplished this through grants to Oregon-based
nonprofit youth development organizations and public entities that provide programs for job
training, skills development, and forest-related or rangeland-related career path training. The OCC has also developed partnerships with private funders to expand this work.
Most of the work conducted through the OCC has been to establish defensible space and conduct fuel treatment activities to protect communities and infrastructure at risk from wildfires. Through 2025, the OCC-funded programs have treated 1,147 individual sites covering 7,406 acres across Oregon. The OCC crews take on tasks that are hard to do by individual property owners or communities, including removing ground and ladder fuels over extensive areas and clearing up to 100 feet of defensible space around infrastructure and structures.
Just as importantly, the OCC is building a pipeline for young Oregonians to enter wildfire-related careers, including wildland firefighting, forest restoration, emergency management, and more. The importance of Oregon growing a locally based wildfire work force cannot be overstated. The number of wildland firefighters across the country is decreasing just as climate change-related natural disasters are increasing—not just wildfires but also hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. At the same time, federal funding is decreasing for wildfire staffing.
The OCC focuses on training youth from diverse and underserved communities, including providing pathways for the youth to earn certifications and credentials in aspects of fire fighting, emergency wilderness response, first aid, and wildfire behavior. They also learn leadership and teamwork skills. To date over 1,000 youth have been trained through the OCC-funded programs.
Here are a few specific examples of work done through the OCC to reduce community wildfire risk.
AntFarm Youth & Family Services: Based in Clackamas County, AntFarm runs the Community Wildfire Defense Program (CWDP) to provide youth work force development and reduce the risk of wildfires in rural parts of the county. Youth crews work with adult mentors, gaining hands-on job training while providing essential services to create defensible space around homes and critical infrastructure. Trainees begin on crews that clear brush, remove low hanging tree limbs, and chip debris piles. As their skills progress, youth move on to learn advanced tree-falling skills and tree climbing. The AntFarm youth crews partner with local fire districts, Clackamas County, the U.S. Forest Service, and other organizations to bring services to their own community while gaining the experience and education needed to continue on to careers in wildfire science, forestry, emergency response, and more.
Eastern Oregon Workforce Board (EOWB): The EOWB was awarded an OCC grant in 2023, enabling it to work with partners across eastern Oregon to train youth in reducing wildfire risk, creating fire-adapted communities, and becoming land managers. The youth worked with local community colleges, state fire services, and nonprofit organizations to learn about and implement defensible space and prescribed burns. Participants have gone on to permanent jobs in these fields.
EOWB received OCC funding for the 2025-2027 biennium, with which it plans to expand partnerships and training to encompass another critical component of creating fire-adapted communities: home hardening. Youth will learn about materials and building standards that increase homes resilience should a wildfire occur. In addition, youth will be learning construction skills as they install mesh screening and deck flashing and build fire-resistant structures.
Central Oregon Wildfire Workforce Partnership (COWWP): This partnership between the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council and Heart of Oregon Corps received OCC funding to train youth in reducing wildfire risk in Jefferson, Crook, and Deschutes counties through fuels reduction projects. Over 140 local youth and young adults were employed and gained on-the-job training and certifications in fire fuel reduction practices.
The Oregon Legislature recognized the value that the OCC’s programs of paid work experience and career training for youth in land management and wildfire risk brings to both the land and to building a wildfire service. In 2025, the Legislature allocated $5 million to the OCC. Then in 2026 the Legislature passed House Bill 4134, known as the "1.25 Percent for Wildlife" Act, which permanently increased the transient lodging tax by 1.25% and dedicated it to natural resource and wildlife conservation. It specified that 0.10 of this tax funding go to the OCC.
This is an example of the permanent and predictable funding that multiple programs across Oregon need to help us all live more safely with wildfire.
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