By Laura Aka for WorkingNation.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Collaboration.

With more than 39 million people , California is the most populous state in the country. Unofficially divided into northern, central, and southern regions, the state has beaches, deserts, farmland, and mountains.

"California is probably unique in its diversity. It's almost not one state economy. It's maybe 10 or 14 regional economies depending on how you look at how industry sectors are organized," says Tim Rainey, executive director, California Workforce Development Board.

The outlook for the green economy is as far-reaching as the state itself. "We're doing everything in California with an eye toward reducing carbon in the atmosphere. In a way, you could almost define everything we do in California as green jobs," says Rainey.

According to our report Green Jobs Now: California, a new WorkingNation and Lightcast analysis of the green labor market in the state, there are already more than 210,593 workers in California's green economy.

The report projects in the next five years, employment for green jobs in the state will increase by 7.1%, well above the national average of 5.7%.

Assembly Bill 398 - intended to mitigate climate change - also calls for the creation of good jobs.

When passed, the legislation tasked the California Workforce Development Board to report "on the need for increased education, career technical education, job training, and workforce development resources or capacity to help industry, workers, and communities transition to economic and labor-market changes related to specified statewide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals."

A 2020 report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center offers a breakdown of AB 398, stating, "California has emerged as a national and world leader in the fight to avoid climate disaster, passing a comprehensive and evolving suite of climate measures to accelerate the transition to a carbon-neutral economy."

Putting California on the High Road: A Jobs and Climate Action Plan for 2030 also says, "The state has also emerged as a national leader in embracing economic equity as a goal for state policy."

Rainey notes, "We need to be really clear that when we talk about jobs, we have to focus on quality jobs. And if we want to achieve equity, you can't separate quality jobs from equity. We're not going to put poor people in bad jobs because that's not going to move the needle in equity."

"Our state and federal governments are investing historic levels of funding in infrastructure focused on climate, green jobs. We have an opportunity to put in those investments workforce standards that help set up our ability to put people in good jobs."

Rainey points out, "The employment is going to be in those traditional occupations that largely don't require college degrees. As the demand for apprentices increases, the demand for construction workers increases - filling the pipeline in a way that has real intentionality around impacting equity is our focus. We have really beautiful programs across the state we call high-road construction careers that do just that."

"Our role in is to fill the pipeline with people who don't look like your traditional tradespeople - more women, more people of color, lots of focus on the formerly incarcerated - so we can start getting at those equity goals and showing that in the data."

Green Jobs Growth in The Golden State

"Workers with green skills are also spreading across a wide range of industries - such as utilities, manufacturing, and professional services - illustrating the increasing need for green skills across California's economy," according to Green Jobs Now: California.

California's Green Workforce is Moderate and Growing: As stated, there are over 210,593 workers in California's green economy, and there were 53,587 green job openings in the state in 2022.

By comparison, this is more than twice the number of Pharmacy Technicians and Forklift / Pallet Jack Operators demanded in California in 2022.

Demand for Green Enabled Jobs is Strong and Green Jobs Are Spreading Across Industries: Demand for green enabled jobs, that is, workers in roles that are not considered green by default, but who are required to have at least one green skill or competency, is significant, with 38,455 openings in 2022.

Workers with green skills are also spreading across a wide range of industries - such as Utilities, Manufacturing, and Professional Services - illustrating the increasing need for green skills across California's economy.

What is a Green Job?

We look at four different categories when we break down the opportunities in the green jobs ecosystem.

Core jobs have "a primary responsibility associated with the green economy." The data indicates a top core green job in California is a solar sales representative.

Enabled jobs have "primary responsibilities separate or tangential to the green economy" with building and general maintenance technicians identified as primary jobs.

Not to be confused with enabled jobs, enabling jobs "aren't associated with green tech per se, but they support the green economy."

Green Jobs Now: California finds there are about 5.8 million workers in the state who, with new skills, could be green workers. "These workers come from a variety of different occupations and educational backgrounds and reskilling them could build the pipeline of green workers faster than relying on new postsecondary graduates alone."

"However, doing so will require a mix of training program formats that support the reskilling and redeployment of these workers."

The most in-demand skills related to core green jobs in California are solar sales and solar energy.

The report says, "For workers in many core and enabled occupations, there is a significant salary boost for having green skills and competencies on their resume." For example, a quality inspector/technician commands an average annual salary boost of more than $8,000.

Findings state, "From the most in-demand green skills, workers interested in entering the green workforce can prioritize what skills and competencies to acquire."

Key green skills offer significant annual salary increases of $1,600 for skills related to wind power and $5,800 for carbon management skills.

According to the data, the average green jobs salary in California is $67,252.

California's Agricultural Sector

"Over a third of the country's vegetables and three-quarters of the country's fruits and nuts are grown in California," according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (GDFA). "In 2021 California's farms and ranches received $51.1 billion in cash receipts for their output."

The farming community increasingly shows strong interest in sustainability, according to Steve Lyle, director of public affairs for the department. "CDFA's climate-smart agriculture incentive programs have continued to grow in popularity such that now they are oversubscribed every year."

"The purpose of our incentive programs is to support them in taking those first steps of trying new sustainable practices in their operations, and hopefully making a business case for continuing those practices beyond the lifetime of their CDFA grants."

Lyle offers advice for the agricultural community, "Take advantage of climate-smart programs, like OEFI [Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation] offers, and the technical assistance its vast network provides to understand which programs and systems will work best for any given farmer or grower in California."

He explains that technical assistance - which is provided to farmers and ranchers at no cost - can include support through the "planning, execution, and closeout processes of our soils, water efficiency, and manure management incentive programs, in addition to funding some programs that offer broader technical assistance for conservation agriculture."

Lyle notes, "Many colleges and universities offer certificate programs in agricultural sustainability." These include UC Davis's bachelor of science degree in sustainable agriculture and food systems and Santa Rosa Junior College's associate degree and two certificates in sustainable agriculture.

Looking forward, he says, "We believe that farmers and ranchers see the challenges of a changing climate and want to pursue strategies that increase their resiliency while being good stewards of the land for future generations."

Pathway into Green Infrastructure

"Since our formation, we've been bringing labor and environmental groups together to really tackle labor and climate issues at the same time," says JB Tengco, vice president of state affairs at BlueGreen Alliance - which includes 10 state-based teams, including California.

Tengco notes that addressing the mission in California is "complicated."

"If you look at California - from the size of its economy, the size of its energy need, the energy diversity that we have here, we have everything you can think about in terms of needs for the economy and to really help the state operate. When you add all that together, the complexity of what we're trying to accomplish with the energy transition is definitely daunting and big."

"I think a lot of folks within the state - from elected officials, to working families, to labor, to industry - are really looking at how do we ensure, that as our energy generation and our energy needs change, that we're doing so in a way that creates good jobs."

Referencing state legislation, Tengco says, "The AB 398 report tries to map out different sets of labor levers to go with climate policy."

He continues, "Climate policy has two components, the climate policy and the proactive labor lever. It's the combination that ensures that you create good jobs. We know there's a difference between a job and a good job."

Tengco notes, "Labor has clearly led on addressing some of those issues around systemic inequality. Historically, you've seen that for a lot of people of color, their abilities to get higher wages, promotion paths, health care have come from working with labor. We've seen a lot of opportunities for people of color to have jobs that are family-sustaining. California has done a lot to recruit from targeted communities - be it people of color, formerly incarcerated, women - into the trades themselves."

Opportunities in the Green Economy

"In the clean energy space, we clearly see the energy generation - from renewables like solar and wind, both onshore and offshore as areas for good job creation," says Tengco.

"As we look at trying to build new energy generation facilities, more and more of that is done with labor. Also, as we move to making buildings more energy-efficient, there's been a lot of good labor work within that. I think increasingly as we look at manufacturing, both California and the country are really thinking through how do we onshore manufacturing? How do we do so in a way that leads to good jobs?"

"What you're seeing is a lot of the crafts continuing work and expanding their work as new opportunities arise. When you really think of what solar generation is, it's energy generation. Electricians who have been working on powering homes, powering buildings, powering industrial sites, solar is just another mechanism to create electricity. You're actually seeing a lot of the trades move that way and have already incorporated a lot of these new technologies in their trainings."

"You see the same with HVAC systems, right? HVAC systems create clean air within schools, hospitals, and whatnot. As that technology changes to become cleaner, they're moving into or expanding their skillset to work on different types of [cleaner] technologies."

An Oakland-Based Nonprofit is Creating Access to Quality Jobs

"Rising Sun as a pre-apprenticeship program is exactly the type of program that the trades partner with to ensure that they are getting people of color, women, local hires into the trades," explains Tengco.

"We've always had this mission that's been at the intersection of equity, climate, and jobs," says Julia Hatton, president and CEO at Rising Sun Center for Opportunity - an Oakland workforce development organization that provides training and employment programs.

Originally founded in 1994, Hatton explains the organization's current Climate Careers program was spearheaded by a student-led effort in 2000. "We had staff who were teaching a class on climate change at Berkeley High. It was actually the students in that class who decided that they didn't want to just learn about this stuff. They wanted to go out and make a difference in their own communities. They went to the homes of their friends and neighbors and took out the old inefficient lighting and water fixtures, and replaced them with new, efficient versions of those things."

"We now run that program across the 10-county area in the Bay Area and Central Valley. The emphasis of that program is the youth employment and the youth development piece - giving young people, not just their first green job, but their first [paid] job. Period."

Climate Careers whose participants are between the ages of 15 to 24 - includes a leadership pathway for the older youth.

After a week of paid training, the participants work during the summer months making green house calls. From September through November, the youth are placed in paid externships with partners working in the climate space. Among them - Redwood Energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Stockton Service Corps.

"We collect feedback cards from every green house call - to see the feedback that comes back about the young people, 'They were so professional. I'm so impressed I learned this thing that I didn't know. I want to hear more from these kids. The youth are our future.' That can be really transformative. On the youth side, it's empowering to know that adults react in that way."

About 80 youth participate in the program, visiting about 3,000 households during the summer - with wages at about $19 an hour.

Pathway Into Union Membership

Rising Sun's Opportunity Build - an industry-certified construction training program - provides a path to union apprenticeship in the skilled trades. "One of the key things that union membership offers is that ongoing training, retraining, and reskilling," says Hatton.

The organization has three cohorts around the skilled trades training.

"We have an all-women's cohort called Women Building the Bay. We have a nights and weekends cohort that runs in the summer that's tailored for folks who might have a job that they need to be at during the day. And then we have a regular cohort in the fall. Across all the cohorts, at least 55% of our participants are women. About 40% are system-impacted which could include coming home from incarceration or having other interaction with the justice system. All of our participants in Opportunity Build are facing some pretty high barriers to employment" - including housing instability and food insecurity.

"We do 10 to 12 weeks of training, but then it's 12 additional months of services after they graduate to support the job placement, the job retention, and, ultimately, the career advancement."

Participants might receive a stipend of a thousand dollars and support services that can include initial union dues, unpaid parking tickets, rent, and childcare.

The Need for Union Labor

"Wind turbines or our highways and roadways - making sure those are going be resilient to climate change, to heat, to flooding, to whatever it is. That's union labor. That's organized labor. That's the building and construction trades," Hatton points out.

She says IBEW Local 332 is well-suited to provide skills training, "They have whole classrooms, whole labs dedicated to battery storage training to EV charging, all those things. When you think about climate infrastructure, that's union labor."

Regarding UA Local 342, Hatton notes, "They're training their apprentices on heat pumps and that's a huge piece when you're looking at building electrification and decarbonization, right?"

Employment in the green sector must mean - not just a job - but a quality job, explains Hatton. "There is an interesting differentiation between residential sector work and work that tends to be organized and unionized which, not exclusively, tends to be more at the commercial or infrastructure scale. That differentiation is really important when you start thinking about job quality."

One Apprentice's Journey

"I took a liking to construction through my grandfather. I found it interesting watching my grandfather work on the sink or rebuild his kitchen, his bathroom, his roof," recalls Ashley Lewis, now a laborer apprentice, Turner Construction Company in Oakland.

"He would just catch me standing there just watching him and he'd just be like, 'Why don't you come over and help?' I'd help lay tiles on the floor, help him replace a couple pipes underneath the sink. I learned to paint a room with my grandfather."

Lewis initially applied for the Rising Sun pre-apprenticeship program a few years ago but the training opportunity was put on hold due to the pandemic. When programming resumed, Lewis applied for the February 2022 all-women cohort with about 20 participants.

She says, "It was all women. I loved that women empowerment, that unity, that sisterhood. We all built a really great bond."

The Rising Sun training gave the participants a lot of experience, notes Lewis. "We ended up getting lots of hands-on training with different tools you might use in different trades like cementing, woodcutting, leveling, mapping."

Prior to her pre-apprenticeship training at Rising Sun, Lewis did in-home care and worked at various odd jobs. Her laborer apprenticeship with Turner began in February of this year.

Lewis is currently working on a project at Oakland International Airport. She says the company has protocols in place to be environmentally safe. "Because there's a lot of welding, a lot of different equipment and chemicals being used, they have these big filtering fans throughout the [walled-off] areas where we're working. That way the fumes and the dust - everything [is kept] at a minimum."

"We don't know how old certain things in the airport are - so trying to keep things contained and from spreading, we have the air filtration systems constantly going and making sure that not only are we safe, but everyone outside the walls is safe."

She says her company is employing green practices in its work. "I think Turner is definitely keeping that in mind. I see all the different recycling bins for metal, for waste, for miscellaneous items. And making sure, because we're at the airport, it doesn't get into the water because we're surrounded by the water. And making sure other things stay covered, locked, and secured.

She continues, "I see them taking steps, putting signs up around the airport, letting people know that there's construction work going on and how we have restricted zones."

Lewis hopes her union pathway will lead to her becoming a journeyman.

The Green Economy and Quality Green Jobs

"You bring in the workforce training components that skill people up so they can take those jobs. You can do that across these investments in ways that really drive not just improving the infrastructure, but really gets to regional and local economic development that starts to impact employment in regions," says the CWDB's Rainey.

Tengco of BlueGreen Alliance says, "When I first started working with BlueGreen, I talked to elected officials, I talked to companies, I talked to a whole host of different allies and partners. We talked about addressing environmental issues, and we talked about the need to create good jobs. Often, I had to answer the question, 'Why do we need to create good jobs? Why do we have to be proactive? Aren't we creating jobs? Isn't that good enough?' I'd say over the years, that the question is no longer 'Why?' but 'How?' And that is what makes me optimistic about what we do."

Rising Sun's Hatton says, "The quality of those jobs is so essentially important. Not just the wages, but the benefits, the scheduling, the worker protections, all of those pieces. It's not just the training. It's all the wraparound pieces, all the supportive services, making sure there are pathways, and that people are prepared to advance on those pathways."

"You have the climate part of the mission that's so important. It has to happen fast and it has to happen everywhere, but how can we make sure those opportunities are also uplifting economically? That's a big question."

Apprentice Lewis frequently talks with her grandfather about her career pathway. "He says, 'When you enjoy something, it doesn't matter what you're doing. Time doesn't exist and before you know it, your day is over.' My grandpa was at the school district for over 30 years and he retired - now I see what he meant because he stayed there for 30 years."


Laura Aka wrote this article for WorkingNation.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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The Biden Administration is investing $50 million from the Inflation Reduction Act in Colorado to produce more batteries to power electric vehicles.

Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said the state is bullish on EVs, in part because gas-powered vehicle tailpipes are a major contributor to harmful ground-level ozone and climate pollution.

"When you look at both our climate goals and just the pollution problems that we have in Denver and the Front Range, switching to electric vehicles just has huge benefits for our air quality and for our climate," Toor asserted.

The new funding will allow Thornton-based manufacturer Solid Power to add at least 40 new jobs, paying production operators, chemists and engineers nearly $78,000 a year on average. Solid Power is also partnering with area high schools and community colleges for job training programs.

After he purchased his own EV, Toor noted he started tracking his electric bills and found significant fuel-cost savings compared with gas-powered vehicles.

"It's the equivalent of me paying about 90 cents per gallon for gasoline," Toor explained. "They are incredibly convenient, I basically don't have to go to the gas station, I just plug in the vehicle when I get home and let it charge overnight."

Colorado supported Solid Power's early growth with an Advanced Industries Accelerator grant in 2014, which supports the development of early-stage technologies. Their new sulfide-based batteries are expected to provide more power and range for drivers and are safer and less costly than conventional lithium-ion technology. Toor emphasized battery-powered vehicles can also help lower electric bills for everyone.

"People primarily charge their electric vehicles overnight, when there is a lot of excess capacity on the grid," Toor pointed out. "It helps to keep everybody's electric rates affordable over time as we get more and more EVs on the grid."


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By Yessenia Funes for Atmos.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

Jessica Celi has lived in the Bay Area for almost her entire life. She spent most of her 20s jumping from industry to industry, trying to find her place in the professional world. She returned to school to specialize in human resources and graduated last year. Then, she was laid off from her first job. That’s when she entered the clean energy job market.

Celi, 30, is just finishing up her 11-month program as a SolarCorps fellow in the Bay Area with GRID Alternatives, a national nonprofit that provides no-cost residential solar installations for eligible low-income households in various regions and also trains locals to provide the service. This year, the organization is expanding its yearslong partnership with the U.S.-run public service agency AmeriCorps to help launch the American Climate Corps, President Joe Biden’s initiative to train and deploy a diverse workforce to, among other things, work in sectors contributing to the clean energy transition. It’s an alternative to the promised Civilian Climate Corps that Democrats axed from his landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law two years ago, and Celi is part of the inaugural class. 

“I am part of something bigger, and I do look forward to moving into a career throughout the long term in the renewable industry,” she said.

Two years after the Civilian Climate Corps died in Congress, groups like GRID Alternatives and the AmeriCorps are picking up the mantle to make the president’s vision of a new green workforce a reality. Corps members do all kinds of work—from restoring wetlands to managing forests—but the SolarCorps focuses on deploying solar panel technology in California, Colorado, and Washington D.C. to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving the planet’s warming. This year’s SolarCorps cohort at GRID Alternatives has installed solar for over 1,170 families. Since October 2023, the organization has orchestrated some 130 job placements. As the Inflation Reduction Act injects $370 billion toward the clean energy sector through tax credits, grants, and loans, the sector sees a rare opportunity for growth. 

The American Climate Corps includes private and public partners from across the country, from the U.S. Forest Service to Operation Fresh Start, a Wisconsin-based organization that helps young people find career pathways. While the Biden administration didn’t provide the American Climate Corps with its own budget to build this new workforce, the White House is directing agency dollars and grants to invest in AmeriCorps programs already molding the green jobs of tomorrow. 

Some organizations—like GRID Alternatives—are bringing renewable energy to communities of color, low-income communities, and other communities that have historically been excluded or disinvested. President Biden committed to distributing at least 40% of his federal investment benefits to these neighborhoods that need them the most. Programs like the SolarCorps are attempting to realize that goal.

SolarCorps has been working with AmeriCorps since 2006 long before climate became a national priority. Now, the program plans to expand to more states thanks to an infusion of new grant dollars GRID Alternatives secured from the Inflation Reduction Act. The organization has provided paid fellowships to over 300 individuals like Celi to learn how to install solar panels, as well as how to engage with the community.

Celi, for instance, was an outreach fellow. Her fellowship is now ending, but her role involved building a relationship with her Bay Area community by door-knocking, calling, or emailing families that already had their solar panels installed to help them monitor their systems and ensure they know how to use the panels. On Earth Day this year, when Biden kicked off the American Climate Corps, Celi was at Richmond, California’s Unity Park with the rest of GRID’s outreach team, as well as other local community partners, to attract the public to their programs. As Celi saw local families engage with the event’s free bike repairs and free bicycle-powered smoothies, she realized the scope of her work—and how impactful that was. 

“It really felt meaningful to see that we are directly connecting with the community and sharing these resources with one another,” she said. 

After all, Richmond is home to a refinery from fossil fuel polluter Chevron. The industrial facility has been a source of air pollution for the predominantly Hispanic, Black, and Asian community. This is, in part, why GRID has been focused on communities of color, explained Adewale OgunBadejo, vice president of workforce development at the organization. 

“How can we reduce the carbon footprint in the communities that we serve? How can we have less urban oil wells because they’re causing higher incidences and rates of cancer and asthma in these communities that we serve?” he said. “We’re helping our fellows make that environmental connection in a very real way so that as you’re installing and you’re looking at an urban drilling well across the street, you understand that the more solar we can install, the more of those we can remove and create more healthy communities.”

Black, Indigenous, and other people of color bear the brunt of air pollution health impacts from dirty energy sources. In 2023, a group of researchers even coined the term “fossil fuel racism” to highlight the insidious ways the industry harms Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor populations. Communities of color are also less likely than their white peers to have installed solar panels onto their roofs. That’s where GRID comes in: The program’s solar panel installations from this year’s fellows alone have cut carbon dioxide emissions by over 78,000 tons—or nearly 15,000 cars taken off the road. 

The SolarCorps program doesn’t only focus on bringing solar panels to people of color—it also prioritizes hiring this demographic as fellows, too. Among the past year’s 51 fellows, for instance, 80% identified as Black, Indigenous, or a person of color. Over half were women or nonbinary, 27% identified as LGBTQIA+, and some 26% have been affected by the justice system (mostly through incarceration). At the national level, the solar industry is dominated by white dudes: In 2022, 73% of the workforce was white and 69% male, according to an independent report. Celi, who is Filipino, experienced that diversity disparity firsthand when in January she attended her first industry conference, where, for the first time in her solar work, she was the minority. 

“I’m very proud to have been able to attend and to create that change,” said Celi, who is also a member of Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy, or WRISE, which is dedicated to cultivating women leaders in the industry.

The SolarCorps fellowship is just a tiny piece of the U.S. government’s wider American Climate Corps. Sociologist Dana Fisher, who is also the author of the book Saving Ourselves, has been researching the existing Corps programs that have been expanding and shifting to include climate change. Many of these adjustments were already in the works before the Biden administration’s formalization of the American Climate Corps. 

Despite the existence of the Climate Corps, there’s no central agency or database tracking the integration of climate change into programs across the U.S. or following the fellows themselves after they complete their service. How many wind up in clean energy jobs? Do they leave these programs with a deeper understanding of how the planet’s rapid warming disrupts society? Fisher’s research on AmeriCorps has so far illuminated the reality that “there is no consensus about how the agency is doing its climate work,” she wrote in a paper published last month. There’s no consistent language used across AmeriCorps programs and, thus, no unified understanding of the climate crisis among program participants and leadership.

Now, Fisher is following the rollout of a handful of programs in Vermont, Maryland, Michigan, and California where she has developed a climate-centric curriculum all of their American Climate Corps members will be required to take when their fellowships begin in September. She will be adding more states to the list later this year. 

Fisher emphasized the need for more federal dollars to go toward analyzing all the varied American Climate Corps programs to assess whether the funding is doing what it’s supposed to do: educating young people (especially young people of color) about the climate crisis and placing them in jobs dedicated to building a cleaner, healthier, more equitable world.

“The infusion of money is absolutely valuable, but it’s impossible for me not to think about this without putting on my social sciences hat,” Fisher said. “The problem is that we don’t know how they’re helping because nobody is actually measuring that, and nobody is there evaluating it.”

GRID’s SolarCorps doesn’t have its own evaluation system, either. The group is working to build that out now that it’s hired a data analyst, OgunBadejo said. They’re hoping to track fellows three to 12 months after they graduate. As the program looks to expand into tribal nations and nearly 30 states like Texas and Michigan over the next few years, OgunBadejo recognizes the need to partner with local groups that know those communities best and can cater the programs to their needs.

With the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants the group has collaboratively received from the Inflation Reduction Act, they plan to work with others and bring their SolarCorps model to even more communities across the country that need access to affordable solar energy and the training to find jobs in the industry, too.

“Our approach as an organization is very holistic,” OgunBadejo said. “We really look at clean energy as a way to address environmental and economic justice.”

For too long, Black and Brown folks have been left out of the clean energy boom. SolarCorps is building an ecosystem where community members have the skills they need to transform their communities for the better—and get paid to do it.


Yessenia Funes wrote this article for Atmos.


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By Keaton Peters for Inside Climate News.
Broadcast version by Freda Ross for Texas News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

Months before the Texas Panhandle erupted with destructive wildfires, fire crews in Borger were igniting fire intentionally on a seven-mile, roughly 250-foot wide ribbon of land on the edge of town.

The prescribed burn in November removed dense grass and brush next to homes on the southwest side of the town. When the Windy Deuce fire ravaged the region in February, the prescribed burn area acted as a fireproof wall that stopped the blaze in its tracks.

"I would bet my next paycheck, if that black line had not been there, we would have lost homes and, it's quite possible, lives. There's no doubt in my mind," said Archie Stone, wildland fire coordinator for Borger, located 50 miles northeast of Amarillo. Stone is a state certified and insured burn manager in Texas and has spent decades fighting wildfires around the country.

The Windy Deuce fire burned an estimated 144,045 acres before it was contained. Nearby, the Smokehouse Creek fire burned more than a million acres as it became the largest wildfire in Texas history, decimating multiple counties and crossing into Oklahoma. At least two people died, hundreds of buildings burned and thousands of livestock were killed.

The region has seen fires throughout its history, with 90 percent of the largest wildfires in Texas recorded in the months between January and May, most of them in west Texas and the panhandle. After massive fires in 2006 claimed 12 lives, the Borger fire chief and city council looked for ways to protect their town. They turned to prescribed burning.

Before modern firefighting and fire suppression techniques, fires across forests and grasslands were a part of the Earth's natural cycles. Prescribed burning is an ancient technique still practiced by some Native Americans. In the range ecosystem that dominates the United States from the Texas panhandle through the Great Plains, land managers and firefighters are recommending prescribed burns to protect communities and restore natural fire cycles. But in Texas, prescribed burning has yet to be widely accepted.

Climate change continues to increase the wildfire risk in Texas, which is part of the region in the United States most affected by high temperatures and long dry spells. Climate scientists warn that the wildfire season in the state is likely to grow longer and more intense.

"We've had a trend of increasing temperatures in the state of Texas for several decades, and that trend is expected to continue," said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist and a professor at Texas A&M University.

Wildfires thrive in dry and windy conditions. More swelteringly hot days contribute to increased rates of evaporation. "Essentially, that means things dry out faster between rainfall," Nielsen-Gammon said. "That would tend to lengthen the period of time over the course of the year in which wildfire is possible."

Long dry and unseasonably hot periods are "where climate change comes in," said Katharine Hayhoe, a professor at Texas Tech University and chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy. "It's the difference between smaller, more easily contained fires, and really large out of control fires."

By 2050, the number of days with wildfire danger in Texas could increase by as many as 40 days per year, according to the Desert Research Institute at the University of Nevada at Reno. Its recent study analyzed a global climate model simulation and various wildfire danger indicators and found that high heat and dry periods will lengthen the wildfire season.

In the days leading up to this year's fires, temperatures in the region surpassed 80 degrees, with the cities of Amarillo and Borger measuring record-high temperatures for late February. The panhandle was not in drought, but higher temperatures quickly dried out tall grass. Then, the winds came.

The Smokehouse Creek fire spread from 40,000 acres on Feb 27 to more than 900,000 within two days. The fire began on Feb. 26 north of Stinnett, Texas. State officials are investigating the fire, but Xcel Energy, a major U.S. electric and natural gas company, has acknowledged that "its facilities appear to have been involved" in igniting the blaze.

From Stinnett, the fire headed east and burned about 80 percent of both Hemphill and Roberts counties. "It was a massive monster of a wildfire," said Andy Holloway, a former rancher in the small city of Canadian, Texas. He was among the lucky ones, with no damage to his home, land or cattle.

Holloway is the Hemphill County agent in agriculture and natural resources for the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension. He said a wet spring and summer in 2023 brought about enormous grass growth. "Dry dead grass in the winter is like standing gasoline," Holloway said. "All it needed was a spark."

Eastern red cedars add to the risk. The trees, native to the Great Plains, were planted intentionally in Texas to control normal wind patterns but now provide ready tinder for fast-spreading fires.

Former wildland firefighter Morgan Treadwell works as a range specialist for the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension and she is an advocate for prescribed burns. Among the wildfire risk factors of fuel, wind and dryness, "the one that we can manage is fuel loads," said Treadwell, who is also an associate professor at Texas A&M University. "We can do that with livestock and we can do that with fire."

Texas state law protects the right of private landowners to ignite fires on their own land when a burn ban is not in effect. Certified and insured burn managers are typically hired to conduct burns, and they are allowed to use prescribed fire during a burn ban. Landowners or any burn managers they hire can be liable for harm if a fire they start enters and scorches someone else's land. Liability remains even if no crops or structures are damaged.

Certified burn managers are trained to monitor weather and wind conditions and to evaluate if the land has become dangerously dry. They also survey the land and plan how to use natural firebreaks to help contain the burn. But "weather is the most unpredictable factor in all of this," Tradwell said, noting that prescribed burning comes with an inherent risk.

The seven-mile prescribed burn near Borger was located on the Four Sixes Ranch, which was a willing partner with the city. But Texas landowners generally are cautious if not reluctant toward prescribed burns.

"People are scared to use a tool like controlled burning for fear they'll be sued," Holloway said, adding that "there's been a few people that have really been heavy handed" filing or threatening lawsuits.

Treadwell agreed that ranching culture is divided over prescribed burns. "Some neighbors can get pretty hateful when it comes to one neighbor burning and the other neighbor not wanting it," she said.

The Texas A&M Forest Service helps fight fires that overwhelm local departments. It has authority to conduct prescribed burns in state forests, although land in Texas is overwhelmingly owned by individuals and private corporations. The forest service offers reimbursements to qualifying landowners who do prescribed burns, but owners bear the upfront cost and legal liability.

Karen Stafford, a wildfire prevention program coordinator for the forest service, said the city of Borger "set the bar high in showing the effectiveness of prescribed burns and what it can do in community protection."

Stone, who now oversees Borger's wildlands, said public engagement on prescribed burning has been crucial. Stone, who joined the fire department there in 2011, said fire personnel continue to personally visit houses near future burn areas and distribute pamphlets with information and a phone number to call with questions. He said the department works hard to engage and meet with residents, the city council and the mayor before starting new prescribed burns. "Now people don't even think twice," he said. "We put out notifications, and they know they're going to see some smoke in the air. They understand why we're doing it."

The Texas A&M Forest Service also encourages cities and counties to develop community wildfire protection plans that identify ways to lower wildfire risk and to protect lives and structures. As of this month, only three municipalities-including the city of Borger-and two counties in the Texas Panhandle have a community wildfire protection plan.

The state forest service's wildfire protection plan contains no mention of climate change, rising temperatures or heat. Stafford would not comment on global climate change as a factor in the state's wildfire plans. The forest service publishes quarterly wildfire outlook reports as well as daily assessments based on actual weather conditions at more than 150 stations across the state.

The wildfire outlook report published in December for the "dormant" season of winter and early spring predicted "fire season will be normal to below normal."

As climate change spurs more days of hot dry weather, the months and weeks of ideal conditions for prescribed burns will shorten. Still, after a historically destructive 2024 wildfire season, the success of Borger's prescribed burn has generated interest in that mitigation technique.

In the town of Canadian, Holloway knows ranchers who have lost everything and he thinks residents across Texas may "reconsider" their aversion to prescribed burns.

"Fire is a good tool to use," he said. "I think this is a big wake up call."


Keaton Peters wrote this article for Inside Climate News.


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