why grizzlycorps?
What is GrizzlyCorps?
GrizzlyCorps is a fellowship program administered by UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. GrizzlyCorps launched in 2020 and was designed by Project Climate. Our program sends young professionals into rural communities across California to promote regenerative agri-food systems and fire and forest resilience.
Climate Change
Climate change presents significant risks to communities across California, threatening both economic stability and resource security. California’s historically variable climate is exacerbated by climate change, leading to more frequent and severe wildfires, droughts, floods, heat waves, and rising sea levels.
In 2020, Governor Newsom issued the executive order known as 30x30, setting a goal to conserve 30% of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030. This initiative aligns with global efforts to increase biodiversity conservation.
This order emphasizes the importance of “[accelerating] actions to enable the State to adapt and become more resilient to the impacts of climate change, including expanding nature-based solutions – the use of sustainable land management practices to tackle environmental, social and economic challenges”.
GrizzlyCorps recognizes that California must reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon sequestration to protect the state’s biodiversity, lessen climate change impacts, and strengthen community resilience. We focus on two key priorities with high potential to enhance California's climate resiliency: regenerative agri-food systems and fire resilience/forest health.
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GrizzlyCorps fellows (22-23) at an invasive French broom pull event with Marin Water in Marin, California.
Community Resilience
Why focus on rural communities?
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Rural farm and forest communities in California are uniquely positioned to address climate change challenges, leveraging their deep connection to the land and robust local ecological knowledge. However, these communities also face severe and disproportionate climate impacts, compounded by systemic inequities. Many rural areas struggle with limited access to clean drinking water, chronic exposure to poor air quality, inadequate transportation infrastructure, and insufficient broadband connectivity. These challenges hinder their ability to adapt to and recover from the effects of climate change.
GrizzlyCorps partners with rural community organizations to build resilience. We place fellows with community entities including Cooperative Extensions, Resource Conservation Districts, nonprofits, and Tribal Nations. Fellows support projects identified by their host sites to address local priorities, from sustainable land management to community wildfire preparedness. Currently, over 70% of GrizzlyCorps fellows serve in countries that ranked high or moderate to high on the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) (facing community-level stressors like poverty, lack of access to transportation, and housing insecurity).
Map of our 2024-2025 host sites across California.
Capacity Building
Persistent capacity gaps among rural farm and forest communities remain a significant barrier to implementing robust and long-lasting solutions to climate change and resilience challenges. GrizzlyCorps responds to this by placing up to 45 fellows annually with community-based entities to enhance their ability to address these pressing issues.
What is capacity building & why do we focus on it?
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Capacity building is the process of helping organizations grow and strengthen the tools, skills, resources, and support they need to better serve their communities.
Rather than imposing solutions, GrizzlyCorps works in partnership with local organizations. Our goal is for communities to lead and sustain their own climate solutions. Our partner sites identify their community needs to form the projects that GrizzlyCorps fellows support. These capacity building projects include:
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Research
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Planning
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Implementation
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Outreach & Education
In this way, fellows work on community-led solutions aimed to sustain long-term growth and adaptation, and are able to glean valuable knowledge from their fellowship experience.
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GrizzlyCorps fellows (21-22) supporting a hedgerow planting event with the Center for Land-Based Learning in Woodland, California.
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Workforce Development
The Need for a Trained, Diverse Environmental Workforce
GrizzlyCorps aims to train the next generation of environmental leaders. In order to effectively engage communities and promote thoughtful solutions, the environmental workforce needs to reflect the communities it serves.
Our fellowship curriculum for our fellows was designed in partnership with the Greater Good Science Center and the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. The training centers around civic bridgebuilding, emphasizing finding common ground, building relationships, and normalizing collaboration. We delve into topics including mindfulness, non-violent communication, listening, building healthy and productive boundaries, constructive dialogue, self-reflection, and leading with curiosity.
Providing Pathways For Careers in Natural Resources
GrizzlyCorps also creates pathways for early college graduates to gain the necessary training and skills to enter a career in the natural resources field. Workforce development is essential to meet California’s ambitious climate goals and enable equal access and opportunities within conservation efforts.
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Three generations of GrizzlyCorps fellows (21-24) at the 41st Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa, California.
Fellows are able to pursue relevant training and certifications in the program (such as the FireFighter Type II, California Naturalist, and Pollinator Stewardship Certifications), and see the career pathways that GrizzlyCorps alumni have gone into after the program. GrizzlyCorps also partners with University of California, state agencies (e.g. California State Parks), the USDA, and industry groups for priority hiring and application instructional support.
Stats (from the past four service years)
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Over 75% of alumni are currently working in a natural resources field related to forestry, fire resilience, agriculture, food systems, watershed health, and environmental education.
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30% of GrizzlyCorps members have been hired as staff by their service site after graduation
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14% of our alumni have attended graduate school
GrizzlyCorps fellows (24-25) at a Fire Fighter Type II certification training in Big Sur, provided by the Health Forest Alliance, where they learned how to be wildland firefighters and how important "good fire" is for so many landscapes.
Focus Areas: Regenerative Agriculture & Wildfire Resilience
Why Regenerative Agri-Food Systems?
California’s agriculture sector is one of the most productive in the world, yet the widespread use of conventional farm methods contributes significantly to climate change. At the same time, climate change impacts like extreme heat, drought, erosion, and the rise of pests and natural disasters pose significant threats to farmers’ livelihoods and the food system as a whole. Regenerative practices have the potential to be a leading solution by improving water retention, enhancing soil health, and mitigating or even reversing the impacts of conventional practices. GrizzlyCorps supports the efforts of local organizations across the state that promote regenerative agriculture practices and address food systems holistically, from land access to local food infrastructure and food security.
Marielle (GrizzlyCorps 24-25 fellow with Lost Sierra Food Project), organized an on-farm gleaning event for the community in Quincy, California.
The legacy of fire suppression for the last century and a half, combined with the impacts of climate change, have resulted in the unprecedented rise of catastrophic wildfires in California. While fire is a natural and essential part of the landscape, and has been used as a stewardship tool by Indigenous communities since time immemorial, recent megafires pose severe threats to lives, ecosystems, and economic stability. GrizzlyCorps seeks to support the community-led efforts in rural California to manage forests ecologically, with tools like prescribed fire, and aid in fire restoration and preparedness efforts.
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Ellen (22-23 fellow with Mendocino Resource Conservation District) at a prescribed burn.
To learn more about our focus areas, go to our Focus Areas page.
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Citations
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California Natural Resources Agency. (2018). California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment. Retrieved from https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-11/Statewide_Reports-SUM-CCCA4-2018-013_Statewide_Summary_Report_ADA.pdf
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California Natural Resources Agency. (2021). California Nature. Retrieved from https://www.californianature.ca.gov/
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California Office of the Governor. (2020, October 7). Executive Order N-82-20. Retrieved from https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/10.07.2020-EO-N-82-20-signed.pdf
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Nishimura, N. (2020). Transformational Capacity Building. National Council of Nonprofits. Retrieved from https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/files/media/documents/2023/fall2020-feature-nishimura-capacity-building.pdf
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California Natural Resources Agency. (2022, April). Pathways to 30x30: Accelerating conservation of California’s lands and waters to protect biodiversity and mitigate climate change. Retrieved from https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/Initiatives/30-by-30/Final_Pathwaysto30x30_042022_508.pdf