{"id":69957,"date":"2026-08-24T23:37:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/69957\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T23:37:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:37:32","slug":"trumps-wildfire-overhaul-tests-full-suppression-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/69957\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s wildfire overhaul tests &#8216;full suppression&#8217; strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-24fdf69dedb9688457db034b15180773 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"color:#212121\">Welcome to CalMatters, the only nonprofit newsroom devoted solely to covering issues that affect all Californians. Sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/subscribe-to-calmatters\/whatmatters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WhatMatters<\/a>\u00a0to receive the latest news and commentary on the most important issues in the Golden State.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.doi.gov\/wildlandfireservice\/fourth-firefighter-dies-following-knowles-fire-burnover-colorado\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Four firefighters<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sltrib.com\/news\/2026\/08\/18\/utah-helicopter-crash-report\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">two helicopter pilots<\/a> and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/wildfires\/2026\/08\/klamath-falls-dozer-operator-killed-battling-wrights-spring-fire.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">contractor bulldozing a fireline<\/a> have died in Colorado, Utah and Oregon this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fast-moving fires have burned millions of acres and destroyed hundreds of homes and buildings in the West. California, which is having an <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/environment\/wildfires\/2026\/07\/dove-fire-heat-wildfires-california\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unusually quiet fire summer<\/a>, has deployed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/2026\/07\/04\/governor-newsom-announces-deployment-of-california-firefighters-and-equipment-to-colorado-as-sister-state-battles-wildfires\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">engines and crews to fight fires raging in Colorado<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.caloes.ca.gov\/governor-newsom-announced-the-deployment-of-additional-firefighting-resources-and-specialized-personnel-to-washington-and-oregon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Pacific Northwest<\/a> \u2014 but even this well-resourced state continues to feel vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. has been at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nifc.gov\/fire-information\/nfn\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Preparedness Level 5<\/a> since July 18, a status that means the federal government is committing the highest possible level of crews, aircraft and firefighting resources to wildfires across the country. And yet requests for help or equipment are going unanswered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This dangerous fire season hit as the Trump administration has reshaped how America fights wildfire \u2014 consolidating crews from across Interior Department agencies into a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service. The new agency and the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/inside-fs\/leadership\/2026-fire-letter-intent\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> U.S. Forest Service<\/a> are pursuing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eenews.net\/articles\/burgums-wildfire-mandate-smother-every-blaze\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cfull suppression\u201d<\/a> of every new blaze.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Administration officials say the aggressive approach is essential to protect firefighters and communities during a hazardous summer in an abnormally hot and dry West. Critics, though, worry it could worsen a long-standing problem: Decades of extinguishing wildfires and climate change-induced drought have left Western forests full of dry fuels, contributing to conditions that can produce catastrophic fires. Making full suppression the default response, they argue, could perpetuate that problem while demanding more firefighting resources than the government has available.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/081226-Colo_Sun_Aspen_Acres_June_CM_29.jpg\" alt=\"People stand beside parked vehicles under an orange, smoke-filled sky during a wildfire.\" class=\"wp-image-505205\"  \/>People gather along Highway 78 after having been forced to evacuate Beulah, Colorado as the Aspen Acres fire raced toward the small town on June 29, 2026. Photo by Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A coalition of nonprofit newsrooms in six Western states conducted roughly two dozen interviews with federal and state officials, former agency leaders and firefighters, experts and advocates. Reporting from California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming shows how on-the-ground changes made by the Trump administration have affected our ability to fight fires amid increasingly destructive conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Federal officials dispute that the reorganization played any role in the deaths of firefighters this year. And while officials in several Western states say the new fire service has so far caused few disruptions on the ground, interviews with former government officials, firefighters and researchers show there are concerns about what the administration\u2019s broader changes could mean for how the country lives with fire over the long term.<\/p>\n<p>The 10 a.m. rule<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some see the full suppression strategy as the return of a discredited 1930s-era \u201c10 a.m. rule,\u201d a former Forest Service directive to put out new fires by the next morning. Today, that strategy demands vast resources, critics point out, while removing the option used by the agency in more recent years to allow carefully chosen fires to burn naturally for the benefit of forests. They argue that will leave forests more vulnerable to catastrophic fires in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Planned burning, or \u201cprescribed fire is never even going to scratch the surface of the number of acres that need to burn every year,\u201d said Johanna Nosal, a professional forester who worked for the U.S. Forest Service in California, Colorado and Montana for 15 years before accepting a federal buyout in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re putting these fires out, and sometimes we\u2019re successful at it \u2026 but it\u2019s just a year-to-year Band-Aid,\u201d Nosal told the collaboration, \u201cand what eventually happens is you have a lack of resources and these weather periods that will create these huge blazes that no matter what you will do will keep spreading.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just the right amount of news<\/p>\n<p>Just the right amount of news<\/p>\n<p>Get California\u2019s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n<p>Get California\u2019s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Asset-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-308618\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz argues full suppression is essential for this hazardous summer. And Brian Fennessy \u2014 former fire chief for the Orange County Fire Authority, now director of the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service \u2014 defends a policy shift it\u2019s made: Federal officials who want to promote forest health can no longer make the final call about whether to let a fire burn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previously at the Interior Department, \u201cwhen it was a fire for resource benefit, fire [officials] may have had a say, but they did not hold the final decision,\u201d which was made by agency land managers, he told the collaboration. \u201cNow, we hold, on the fire side, that final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the Forest Service, underlying policies still provide the authority to manage wildfire to benefit forests. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.doi.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/2026-04\/2027bibuswfs508.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a proposal<\/a> to move the Forest Service (USDA) firefighting program into the U.S. Wildland Fire Service is stoking fears that could change.<\/p>\n<p>This summer, Schultz said, the Forest Service has not revived the 10 a.m. rule: \u201cWe aren\u2019t making any commitment to that time frame.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"670\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/080626_Utah_Fire_Tour_SLT_CM.jpg\" alt=\"A U.S. Forest Service official speaks into a microphone while holding a folder outdoors.\" class=\"wp-image-505206\"  \/>U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz speaks during a media tour at the fire camp for the Widemouth 2 Fire in Kanosh, Utah on Aug. 6, 2026. Photo by Bethany Baker, The Salt Lake Tribune<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, he told the collaboration, its full suppression strategy includes two approaches: Direct and indirect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDirect is when you go right at it. Indirect is when you look at the topography,\u201d he said. \u201cThe tactics will be different. Firefighter safety is critical, but also looking at the values at risk. We\u2019re looking at structures. We\u2019re looking at timber. We\u2019re looking at grass. We\u2019re looking at fencing. All of those things go into how we prioritize,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adrienne Freeman, a Forest Service spokesperson based in California, said the approach ultimately comes down to firefighter safety, the structures and people at risk, and the agency\u2019s firefighting capacity nationwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With crews stretched thin on fires raging across the country, she said, there simply isn\u2019t the bandwidth to manage a fire for ecological benefit right now.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787614651_783_thumbnail.jpeg\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"map visualization\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf something goes funny, we don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to get the resources to manage it \u2014 and we pretty much know we aren\u2019t because that\u2019s not where houses are,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cNo one is going to make that decision when we\u2019re at PL5\u201d \u2014 the nation\u2019s highest level of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blm.gov\/blog\/2024-08-29\/national-preparedness-levels-what-it-means-be-pl-5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fire activity and response<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even past fires that drew public criticism over the perception that the Forest Service \u201clet them burn\u201d often weren\u2019t being managed for ecological benefit at all, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/research.fs.usda.gov\/download\/treesearch\/66592.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2023 Forest Service analysis<\/a>. Researchers found that concerns for firefighter safety \u2014 not nature \u2014 drove delayed suppression far more often.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is the thing: people think this is black and white, and nothing about land management is black and white,\u201d Freeman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Utah supports the full suppression policy, \u201cmainly because of where we\u2019re at condition-wise, the historical drought, the dry fuels, and the intensity of these fires,\u201d to protect firefighters and communities, said Jamie Barnes, recently appointed as director of the Department of Natural Resources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe will never put people in an area that is unsafe for firefighters. We will always take an indirect approach from that if we have to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the country at its highest level of preparedness, resource allocation will vary by fire, Schultz acknowledged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut in terms of this time of the year, right now, we are not going to just sit back and let fire go and achieve other objectives,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be aggressively suppressing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Fear of fire\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bobbie Scopa is a 45-year firefighting veteran who worked for local, state and federal agencies, primarily in Western states. When she began in 1974, blazes were smaller, she said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t ripping like they do now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Forest Service shifted away from the 10 a.m. policy and began allowing some fires to burn for landscape health in 1971. But pressure from states has sometimes discouraged that federal policy, said Nosal, who now lives in Butte, Mont.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPretty much every administration I worked under,\u201d she said, \u201cthere\u2019s been at least one year when they\u2019re like, \u2018We\u2019re not gonna let managed fires happen, we want to get everything under control as soon as possible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"660\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/082126-Bonneville-Fire-SLT-CM.jpg\" alt=\"A line of firefighters hikes along the ridge of a rocky, fire-scorched hillside.\" class=\"wp-image-505207\"  \/>Hand crews continue to work on the Bonneville Fire in Salt Lake City, on June 22, 2026. Photo by Chris Samuels, The Salt Lake Tribune<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nosal spent her 15 years with the Forest Service removing and thinning trees and other vegetation that would have been cleared out by smaller fires, she said. In the sagebrush ecosystems that cover the Great Basin, suppression has led to encroachment by pinyon-juniper woodlands and other trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEven in those really dry forest types, you\u2019re seeing denser forests and more continuous forests than would have been there,\u201d she said. \u201cThat means when a fire does roll through \u2026 you just get these really intense fires that burn everything, which historically isn\u2019t the natural fire regime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other areas, such as the Sierra Nevada, the forests are just too dense, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHistorically, California state agencies have funded wildfire safety projects on federal lands in response to a lack of federal investment,\u201d California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said in a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the start of the Newsom administration alone, Crowfoot said, the state has invested nearly half a billion dollars in projects on federal lands.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The spread of homes and other development into the wildland-urban interface (WUI) also has changed firefighting, Scopa said. \u201cIf a fire starts before there are houses, and firefighters show up, the Hot Shots cut lines, firefighters lay lines along the edge of the fire, they have a simple fire,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to come up with a strategy to anchor and flank the fire while it\u2019s small.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Add just a few houses, and \u201csome of the firefighters are going to go to the houses and start prepping to protect the properties,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, you have fewer firefighters on the fire. It totally complicates work for the firefighters. And it requires more people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scopa estimated federal agencies would need another 30,000 to 40,000 firefighters to be able to implement full suppression, \u201cand you still wouldn\u2019t be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Multiple requests for hand crews and engines went unfilled on the Widemouth 2 Fire, Tony DeMasters, incident commander of Great Basin Team 2, told The Tribune. The fire has burned nearly 130,000 acres in western Utah.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re getting international help,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat\u2019s just how severe the fire season is, and we\u2019re only in August. We got another 8, 10, maybe 12 weeks to go.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s common for resources to be this scarce, DeMasters added, when the Great Basin region and nation are at Preparedness Level 5. \u201cWhen we go to those planning levels, that means everything is strapped.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Forest Service <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/inside-fs\/leadership\/we-operate-peak-fire-season\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has roughly 14,000 employees who manage and respond to fires<\/a>, including around 11,800 firefighters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wildland Fire Service <a href=\"https:\/\/www.doi.gov\/wildlandfireservice\/about\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">employs fewer than 6,000 federal personnel and supports around 900 tribal personnel<\/a> to cover more than 500 million acres of public and tribal lands across the country.<\/p>\n<p>A new fire service<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To create the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service, the Trump administration combined firefighters from four Department of the Interior agencies: Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Fennessy comes to the role after nearly eight years as chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, where he built one of the country\u2019s first all-hazard incident management teams and pushed an aggressive aviation strategy that became a model for regional wildfire response.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe goal of this is to reduce internal redundancy,\u201d Brock Uhlig, a chief at the new service, told Nevada lawmakers at a May interim committee<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jSKN8Yk8Wfo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> meeting<\/a>. \u201cMembers of the public will see the exact same product.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By July in Nevada, it was \u201ckind of business as usual and everyone\u2019s still collaborating and responding to fires,\u201d said Ryan Shane, State Forester Firewarden. But, he acknowledged, it was early in the season. \u201cTime is going to tell what improvements we are going to see \u2026 or if there are any gaps.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Utah officials have seen the transition go \u201cvery smoothly,\u201d said Jamie Barnes, recently appointed as the director of Utah\u2019s Department of Natural Resources. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any issues with firefighters on the ground or financial resources.\u201d <br \/>In California, for all the local, state and federal borders within the state, firefighters from different agencies often converge on the same wildland fires.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the Timber Fire scoured steep, coastal national forest lands around Big Sur, Cal Fire stepped in with its own incident management team to orchestrate the firefight \u2014 the federal teams were busy on other fires, or taking mandatory rest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this summer, the <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/environment\/wildfires\/2026\/07\/dove-fire-heat-wildfires-california\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fast-moving Dove Fire<\/a> took off near a Yosemite gateway town.\u00a0 As the fire burned, Emily Kilgore, a public information officer for Cal Fire\u2019s Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit, said she hadn\u2019t noticed any changes to the deployment of federal resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey were requested. They responded. They worked in tandem as one of our cooperators to assist us to gain containment on the Dove Fire,\u201d Kilgore said on the phone, over the beat of a helicopter responding to another fire that had just ignited nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cal Fire headquarters agreed, saying there have been no changes to its fire suppression relationship with federal agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201cfield-level folks\u201d who have spoken with Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, a nonprofit based in Sparks, Nevada, haven\u2019t seen any negative impact, president Riva Duncan told the collaboration.<br \/>\u201cBut speaking to fire managers, they said it was pretty clunky for them,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cThey\u2019ve restructured decision-making authority, so there\u2019s a lot of \u2018Where do I go to now if I need something approved?\u2019 There\u2019s not as much communication as folks had hoped for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cClunky\u201d communication may be occurring at times, Fennessy said. \u201cI mean, we\u2019re talking about thousands of people. I\u2019m sure that probably occurs. But that\u2019s not the feedback I\u2019m getting and it\u2019s not from my people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Officials are still investigating whether the transition played any role in the late June deaths of three federal firefighters who were killed while battling the Knowles Fire in Colorado and a fourth who died later from his injuries. Fennessy said he finds the suggestion that there may be a connection \u201coffensive. It is absolutely wrong. \u2026 It\u2019s just ludicrous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is \u201cabsolutely zero connection between the rollout, the unification and these fatalities,\u201d he said. \u201cI am close enough to the investigation that is still ongoing, to certainly say that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/030422-Cal-Firefighters-Memorial-MG-CM-03.jpg\" alt=\"The California Firefighters Memorial on the state Capitol grounds on March 4, 2022. Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\" class=\"wp-image-249378\"  \/>The California Firefighters Memorial on the state Capitol grounds on March 4, 2022. Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The firefighters were part of a helitack crew that got trapped near the Colorado-Utah border when high winds drove small, lightning-started wildfires in Utah. Sydney Watson, 27, of Warrior, Alabama, worked for the Wildland Fire Service, as did a fourth firefighter, Nathan Matthews, 43, of Lincoln, Nebraska, who was injured in the burnover and died later.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Barker, 38, of Clinton Township, Michigan, and Nick Hutcherson, 27, of Glendale, Arizona, worked for the Forest Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Duncan stressed that investigations remain ongoing and no conclusions are available. \u201cBut fatalities really affect the workforce,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of fire season left and people are fearful. The investigations take a long time to come out, and it\u2019s frustrating if there are important lessons to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fears for the future <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Andrea Salinas, an Oregon Democrat, pointed out to Schultz in July that removing fire personnel from the four Interior agencies separates them from former colleagues who are responsible for restoring forests and reducing fuels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis proposal would fracture the critical communications link between land management and fire management,\u201d Salinas said at a July 22 House Agriculture Committee hearing.<\/p>\n<p>The disconnect could mean that decisions once made between colleagues will have to be negotiated among agencies, said Brad Washa, an assistant professor of Wildland Fire Science at Utah State University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDown the road, will [fire personnel] be sitting in a different office and not next to the folks that are managing the natural resource?\u201d asked Washa, a former BLM firefighter.<\/p>\n<p>When working together, for example, a land manager could easily alert firefighters to not bulldoze lines in areas that could affect endangered species or cultural resources, he said. That may become more difficult now. \u201cThe land management agency might lose some of its ability to exert its authority in managing the natural resource,\u201d Washa said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These issues are why the National Association Forest Service Retirees opposes the creation of the new fire agency, president Bill Avey said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t think wildfire should be divorced from the land \u2014 that\u2019s been a policy failure,\u201d he said. \u201cWe continue to stand on the fact that this national wildland fire service is the wrong solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Fennessy argues there is no disconnect.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve not moved anybody on the Interior side out of where they are stationed. Offices that hold both land managers and executive firefighters, those offices haven\u2019t changed,\u201d he said. \u201cThey talk to each other every day. \u2026 I question the motive or intent of those that want to make that argument.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fennessy said his agency recognizes that \u201cland managers are the resource experts\u201d and that they are \u201cintimately involved and engaged.\u201d Fire officials and land managers \u201cneed to be in lockstep,\u201d he said, \u201cwhen we\u2019re doing prescribed fire or preparing for whatever treatment it may be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Forest Service is undergoing its own reform right now. Its headquarters are moving west from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City and regional centers will be closed, with research consolidated in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Forest Service has lost 16% of its workforce since 2024, Salinas noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis sweeping reorganization creates more questions than answers and the fact that it\u2019s being implemented right as wildfire season is upon us is alarming,\u201d Salinas told Schultz. \u201cDoing so threatens the Forest Service overall \u2014 the loss of staff, and the institutional knowledge they have, should not be casualties in the Trump administration\u2019s reorganization of the Forest Service. Each is too valuable to be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Few states are better equipped to weather the federal firefighting changes than California.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California has invested billions in firefighting, a strategy that has carried through multiple administrations, with different emphases at different times. But it all amounts to this: California has its own people and equipment to rely on, including the world\u2019s largest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fire.ca.gov\/what-we-do\/fire-protection\/aviation-program\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">aerial firefighting fleet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cal Fire \u2014 officially the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection \u2014 is the largest state-run fire department. As California experienced some of its most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fire.ca.gov\/our-impact\/statistics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">destructive wildfires on record<\/a>, Cal Fire\u2019s staffing skyrocketed\u00a0\u2014 climbing past more than 12,000 employees, according to the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It now employs more wildland firefighters than any agency in the world besides the U.S. Forest Service, according to a 2025 white paper led by researchers with <a href=\"https:\/\/research.fs.usda.gov\/download\/treesearch\/80455.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stanford University\u2019s Climate &amp; Energy Policy Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/051826_Sandy_Fire_ZC_CM_09.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters carrying tools and gear climb a steep hillside during a wildfire response.\" class=\"wp-image-505208\"  \/>CalFire firefighters carry a fire hose up a hillside during the Sandy Fire in Simi Valley on May 18, 2026. Photo by Zin Chiang for CalMatters<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The department is primarily responsible for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firesafesanmateo.org\/resources\/sra-vs-lra\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rural, mostly privately owned wildlands<\/a> that make up about <a href=\"https:\/\/lao.ca.gov\/Publications\/Report\/4952#How_has_the_size.2C_destructiveness.2C_and_severity_of_wildfires_in_California_changed_over_time.3F\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one-third of the state\u2019s acreage<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But federal agencies are tasked with <a href=\"https:\/\/lao.ca.gov\/handouts\/resources\/2026\/Overview-of-Wildfire-Prevention-and-Response-Funding-040826.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">protecting about half of the state<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California spends big because it has a lot at stake. Last year\u2019s catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles alone <a href=\"https:\/\/34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net\/-\/media\/calfire-website\/images\/top-20-deadliest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=576105d6528b4d339658e5a4d845e1a4&amp;hash=13B11B754D9CBAA8863A2EC8233B77CF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">killed 31 people<\/a>, hastened the deaths of <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jama\/fullarticle\/2837351\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hundreds more<\/a>, and cost up to $131 billion in total property and capital losses, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anderson.ucla.edu\/about\/centers\/ucla-anderson-forecast\/economic-impact-los-angeles-wildfires\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one UCLA analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California\u2019s leadership is concerned about the Trump administration\u2019s reorganization of the Forest Service, its staff cuts and its closure of research facilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on wildfire safety projects on federal lands under Newsom \u2014 spending Crowfoot said has often compensated for a lack of federal investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhile I understand the intention to operate a more efficient federal agency, many of these changes could impact our state\u2019s wildfire readiness and create added public safety risks,\u201d Crowfoot said in his May letter to Rollins.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crowfoot said that it\u2019s critical to work with federal partners who have enough money and staff to get ahead of the next disaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf we fail to do so, we will again be faced with disaster recovery costs that far exceed the costs of preventing disasters from happening in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No simple answer<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Department of Agriculture\u2019s 2027 budget proposes transferring the departments, which includes the Forest Service, wildland firefighting resources and responsibilities into the new Wildland Fire Service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The department awarded a $1.16 million contract to study consolidating all federal wildland fire operations into the new agency, according to a statement on Aug. 4. The department expects the report to be complete by Feb. 15, 2027, which means its results won\u2019t be available for the fiscal 2027 budgeting that begins in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Forest Service extinguishes more than 95% of the fires on its forests, Scopa said, but pursuing full suppression permanently wouldn\u2019t be realistic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s no simple answer. We\u2019re not gonna put [out] all the fires,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re never going to be successful. \u2026 The environment is not conducive to that, the fuels are not conducive to that, the staffing is not conducive to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> .wp-block-group__inner-container > :not(h2){margin: 16px 40px !important;}.cm-cta.long-ask .wp-block-group .wp-block-group__inner-container{display: flex;gap: 12px;align-items: center;}.cm-cta.long-ask figure{max-width: 40px;flex-shrink: 0;}.cm-cta.long-ask .wp-block-group p{font-size: 18px;font-weight: 700;line-height: 120%;letter-spacing: -0.36px;width: 100%;}.cm-cta.long-ask .wp-block-group .wp-block-buttons{flex-shrink: 0;}.cm-cta.long-ask .wp-block-button__link{padding-left: 40px;padding-right: 40px;}@container long-ask (min-width: 601px){.cm-cta.long-ask *{font-size: 16px;}}@container long-ask (max-width: 600px){.cm-cta.long-ask h2,.cm-cta.long-ask .wp-block-group p{text-align: center;}.cm-cta.long-ask h2{background: linear-gradient(90deg,#FFE094 0%,#FFB500 100%);padding: 12px 20px;font-size: 20px;letter-spacing: -0.4px;}.cm-cta.long-ask .wp-block-group .wp-block-group__inner-container{flex-direction: column;}.cm-cta.long-ask > .wp-block-group__inner-container > :not(h2){margin: 16px 20px !important;}}]]><\/p>\n<p>Nonpartisan, independent California news for all<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re CalMatters, your nonprofit and nonpartisan news guide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our journalists are here to empower you and our mission continues to be essential.<\/p>\n<p>We are independent and nonpartisan. Our trustworthy journalism is free from partisan politics, free from corporate influence and actually free for all Californians.<\/p>\n<p>We are focused on California issues. From the environment to homelessness, economy and more, we publish the unfettered truth to keep you informed.<\/p>\n<p>We hold people in power accountable. We probe and reveal the actions and inactions of powerful people and institutions, and the consequences that follow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But we can\u2019t keep doing this without support from readers like you. Please give what you can today.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"240\" height=\"221\" src=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Asset-2ii-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-316980\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every gift helps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to CalMatters, the only nonprofit newsroom devoted solely to covering issues that affect all Californians. 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