Around one-third of California’s wildland firefighters are incarcerated people, yet many struggle to maintain their careers in forest firefighting upon their release. One nonprofit organization is working to change this by providing the training and support necessary to ensure that formerly incarcerated individuals and those from other marginalized communities working in firefighting have access to the long-term careers they've been working towards, while reducing labor shortages to better protect the communities and ecosystems most at risk from severe and frequent wildfires.

Five graduate students from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) worked with the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP), to provide resources that could be used to grow impact and boost career support to formerly incarcerated firefighters and currently incarcerated participants of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Conservation Camps program.

"FFRP cohorts train intensively to work on crews that will battle wildfires like those in the Palisades this January. Catastrophic fires are predicted to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change, leaving communities in the West vulnerable to similar destruction,” says Chloe Hernandez (MS ’25), one of the members of the SEAS project team. “At the same time, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection regularly struggle to meet workforce needs. These gaps are filled in part through prison labor.” 

Another team member, Alexandra Crilley (MS ’25), adds that this work is essential to protecting communities. 

“As anthropogenic climate change continues to worsen, California will continue to experience wildfires of increasing severity and intensity. These ‘megafires’ necessitate a larger forestry and firefighting workforce to help protect both human and ecological communities. The work done by FFRP trainees and staff alike helps limit the spread of disastrous fires and mitigate the harm caused through methods such as fuel reduction and cutting line in addition to active firefighting,” says Crilley.

The project team, which also included Kendall Koenen (MS ’25), Daniela Giordano (MS ’25) and Zhuxin Wu (MS ’25), advised by Paige Fischer, SEAS associate professor and lead of the Kathy and Steve Berman Western Forest and Fire Initiative (WFFI), began their work with three primary questions:

1. How well do the program elements contribute to a participant’s perceived ability to find a stable and fulfilling job post-incarceration?
2. How has FFRP and the career training program impacted the overall societal reintegration of formerly incarcerated participants?
3. How does FFRP boost the development of the wildland firefighting workforce with the existing system-wide challenges in the forestry and fire sector?

Through a qualitative impact assessment, the research team first revealed the effectiveness of FFRP’s work. To frame their research, the team went on a site visit in May 2024 to attend relevant meetings and visit the Los Angeles Career Training Center, allowing them to form accurate and comprehensive research questions. The team then interviewed FFRP graduates and staff members, which they later coded and analyzed.

“We wanted to make sure the voices of those directly impacted by the program were front and center. Hearing their stories was one of the most impactful parts of our research,” says Giordano. “The interviews gave us a window into the personal side of workforce development. For those in the program, it wasn’t just about job placement, but about rebuilding self-worth and identity.”

The team found promising results on the impact and value of FFRP’s work. Their findings showed that interviewees highlighted mentorship and self-discipline as top outcomes of the program, and that the program provided them with the preparedness to find a stable and fulfilling job post-incarceration while improving societal reintegration outcomes.

One anonymous interviewee described pride in being seen as a regular citizen. He discussed an interaction he had while on duty, when a few kids asked if they were firefighters, and then excitedly joined in on their work. “Just that part alone for me was worth it because the moms didn't know anything I've done, or anything that any of us had done, and they just looked at us as normal people,” he said. 

In March 2025, the research team concluded their project with a final site visit, this time to the Oakland Career Training Center, where they were able to finalize their recommendations and discuss what the next steps for the program and the assessment entail. 

“FFRP has helped 270 people gain employment in forestry and fire. Recidivism rates among program graduates are much lower than state and national averages. For the California taxpayer, this means that a societal cost of $139,000 associated with incarceration costs is saved for every participant FFRP serves. Because of the support and doors opened through FFRP, people are not returning to the correctional system —instead, they have new ways forward with meaningful employment," says Hernandez.

Fischer adds that, thanks to the project team’s work, FFRP now has “a good understanding of its impacts, grounded in rigorous research, and a methodology to replicate in future impact assessments.”

For more information, visit the Just Wildfire Workforce page on the WFFI website.