Prescribed Fire in California: An Honest Assessment
California’s Prescribed Fire Efforts Are Not Meeting the Need
California has invested heavily in wildfire resilience, beneficial fire, workforce development, and community preparedness. The goals are important, but the outcomes have not matched the scale of the investment.
California needs more prescribed fire on the ground, more qualified practitioners, more community capacity, and better access for private landowners. So far, the system has not delivered those results at the pace required.
The uncomfortable truth is this:
California’s prescribed fire system has failed to produce outcomes at the scale needed to meet the wildfire crisis.
The Numbers Do Not Match the Investment
The state has set ambitious goals for beneficial fire, but acres burned by community-based prescribed fire remain far below what is needed. Funding announcements, planning efforts, and coordination meetings do not reduce wildfire risk unless they result in trained people, completed qualifications, and good fire safely applied to the landscape.
The issue is not whether prescribed fire works. It does. The issue is whether California’s current system is producing enough of it.
We Can Do Better
Success should not be measured by dollars awarded. It should be measured by acres burned, practitioners trained, qualifications completed, PBAs supported, and landowners assisted.
Major Concerns Holding Prescribed Fire Back
1. Too Much Funding Goes to Institutions, Not Outcomes
Prescribed fire workforce programs must be competitive, outcome-based, and open to nonprofit training organizations, tribal entities, private providers, and community-based organizations. Public funding should reward demonstrated results, not institutional continuity.
2. California Has Not Built a Functional CARX Pipeline
California State-Certified Prescribed Fire Burn Bosses are essential to scaling private-land prescribed fire, yet the pathway remains difficult for non-agency practitioners to navigate. Without a clear path for training, task books, field experience, mentorship, and certification, the number of available burn bosses will remain far too low.
3. The System Favors Agency Employees Over Community Practitioners
Many qualifications are easier to obtain through agency employment. That leaves private landowners, tribal practitioners, nonprofit staff, PBA leaders, and rural community members without a practical pathway into the prescribed fire workforce.
4. State-Funded Training Should Not Charge People to Enter the Pipeline
When the state funds workforce development, certification fees and administrative costs should not become barriers for the very people the program is intended to serve. Fee waivers or reimbursement should be built into state-supported training and certification pathways.
5. CARX and PBAs Need Public Visibility
Most private landowners do not know what CARX is, how to find a certified burn boss, how the Prescribed Fire Claims Fund works, or how to join or form a Prescribed Burn Association. California needs a public education campaign for beneficial fire that matches the seriousness of the wildfire crisis.
6. California Needs a Public CARX Registry
Private landowners should not have to rely on word of mouth or institutional gatekeepers to find qualified prescribed fire practitioners. California needs a public, searchable, regularly updated directory of CARX-certified burn bosses, including region, certification status, and availability for private-land work.
7. Burn Windows Must Follow Conditions, Not Calendars
Prescribed fire depends on weather, fuel moisture, elevation, humidity, and site-specific conditions. Calendar-based burn suspensions can eliminate safe burn windows in higher-elevation or cooler areas even when conditions are appropriate. California needs a condition-based authorization system that allows qualified burn bosses to act when conditions are right.
8. Small Parcel Landowners Are Being Left Out
Many of the most vulnerable WUI landowners own small parcels. Current systems are often too complex, expensive, or agency-dependent for two- to ten-acre landowners who simply need help safely burning piles, small units, or neighborhood-scale projects.
9. Red Card and NWCG Access Must Be Open to Non-Agency Practitioners
Non-agency practitioners, tribal members, PBA coordinators, and community volunteers need realistic access to NWCG task books, supervision, qualifications, and incident qualification cards. Competency should matter more than institutional affiliation.
10. Community Preparedness Must Start at the Neighborhood Level
County coordination is important, but fire preparedness happens at the parcel and neighborhood level. Neighbor-led PBAs, Firewise communities, and grassroots fire safe groups should be treated as primary delivery models, not side projects.
Money Exists. Capacity Does Not.
California does not simply need more funding. California needs funding tied directly to acres burned, people trained, qualifications completed, burn bosses certified, and communities empowered to use good fire safely.
What Needs to Change
- Create competitive prescribed fire training and capacity programs open to qualified nonprofits, tribes, private providers, and community-based organizations.
- Measure funded programs by outcomes: acres burned, CARX candidates advanced, task books completed, and practitioners qualified.
- Build a clear non-agency pathway for NWCG qualifications, red cards, and CARX certification.
- Support public CARX directories and make qualified burn bosses easier for landowners to find.
- Fund mentorship, task book supervision, and field evaluation opportunities.
- Create condition-based burn authorization systems, especially for high-elevation communities with short burn windows.
- Develop a simple pathway for small parcel landowners to safely use prescribed fire.
- Recognize neighborhood-scale PBAs and grassroots fire groups as core wildfire resilience infrastructure.
The California Prescribed Fire Council’s Role
The California Prescribed Fire Council was created to help solve these problems by building practical capacity for prescribed fire across California.
We are focused on training people, supporting Prescribed Burn Associations, helping practitioners pursue qualifications, improving access to Incident Qualification Cards, connecting landowners with qualified burn bosses, and making prescribed fire resources easier to find.
We Believe Success Should Be Measured By:
- Acres safely burned
- PBAs formed and supported
- Landowners assisted
- Practitioners trained
- Task books initiated and completed
- CARX candidates supported
- Incident Qualification Cards issued
- Equipment placed into service
- Communities prepared before wildfire arrives
The Solution Is Known
More trained people. More qualified burn bosses. More local capacity. More PBAs. More access for landowners.
More good fire on the ground.
A Call for Accountability and Action
California has the knowledge. California has the funding. California has the need. What California now needs is accountability, transparency, and measurable results.
The wildfire crisis will not be solved by reports, meetings, or grant cycles alone. It will be solved when communities have the tools, training, leadership, and support to safely return good fire to the landscape.
Until prescribed fire is implemented at a scale that matches the problem, we should be honest:
The current system is not working well enough — and California can do better.