Latest news with #forestservice
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As US wildfires rage, firefighters clean toilets after Trump staff cuts, critics say
By Andrew Hay (Reuters) -The U.S. Forest Service faced criticism from current and former employees who say federal workforce reductions under the Trump administration have left fire teams understaffed, as the country grapples with decade-high U.S. wildfire numbers this year. The agency, which oversees the nation's largest wildland firefighting force, rejected those claims, saying it has sufficient resources. However, more than a dozen active and retired U.S. Forest Service employees told Reuters that the agency is struggling to fill critical roles after approximately 5,000 employees - roughly 15% of its workforce - quit in the past five months. Accounts from firefighters in Oregon and New Mexico, as well as a fire chief recruiting support staff in the Pacific Northwest, said the vacancies have led to personnel held back from supporting frontline firefighting because of administrative duties. The crew leader on an Oregon blaze said her team went hungry for several days, ran short of medical supplies and had to scrounge for chainsaw fuel after support staff quit the agency during two rounds of "fork in the road" buyouts. "I had guys who were going to bed hungry after working 16 hours," said the crew leader on the Alder Springs Fire, who asked not to be named for fear of losing her job. National and local USFS officials say, however, the force is ready for what is expected to be a worse than average fire year in California, the Pacific Northwest and the northern Rockies, according to National Interagency Fire Center forecasts. "Our fire staff feels very confident in our staffing levels going into this fire season," said USFS Public Affairs Officer Isabella Isaksen, who represents USFS operations in central Oregon. Isaksen said food problems on the Alder Springs Fire were due to a new caterer and were quickly resolved. She said medical, chainsaw and other supplies were available on the 3,400-acre blaze that triggered evacuations in two counties. 'THEY ARE READY' The Trump administration pledged not to cut firefighting positions and other public safety jobs in firings, voluntary resignations and early retirements meant to raise efficiency at the USFS which manages 193 million acres of land (78 million hectares), roughly about the size of Texas. USFS employees that Reuters interviewed for this story said the loss of thousands of foresters, biologists, trail builders and campground managers was having a knock-on effect on firefighters. Not only are firefighters having to cover empty positions at ranger stations but they also have lost hundreds of peers who each year switched from regular jobs to take on firefighting support roles during the fire season, which typically runs from spring to fall, these people said. USFS Chief Tom Schultz on Wednesday told agency managers to make all of these fire-qualified, so-called "red-carded" staff available for what he called an "extremely challenging" fire year, according to a memo seen by Reuters. Year to date, wildland firefighters have been called to nearly 41,000 blazes, by far the highest number in federal data going back to at least 2015. Last month Schultz told a U.S. Senate committee he was trying to temporarily hire back some 1,400 fire-qualified, "red-carded" support staff who took buyouts. "I do believe they are ready," Schultz said when asked about preparedness for the 2025 fire year. FIREFIGHTERS MOW LAWNS Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees the USFS, said in June at a meeting of Western state governors in New Mexico that the agency was on target to hire 11,300 firefighters by mid July, outpacing hiring over the past three years. As of June 29, 11,236 or 99% of that number had been hired, slightly below last year's level, according to the most recent USDA data. The USDA disputed claims that staff shortages are endangering communities, forests, and firefighters. "We are providing the resources needed to ensure the Forest Service has the strongest and most prepared wildland firefighting force in the world," a USDA spokesperson said. New Mexico U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich has criticized the Trump administration's firing and rehiring of 3,400 USFS probationary staff, three-quarters of whom were red-carded, as well as what he called its indiscriminate, agency-wide staff buyouts. 'Wildfire season is well underway, and thanks to DOGE and Donald Trump, the U.S. Forest Service is being gutted, leaving communities ill equipped to fight deadly wildfires," Heinrich said in a emailed statement on July 11. The Forest Service says it does not have enough wildland firefighters for the country's "wildfire crisis" and relies on red-carded staff to "boost wildland firefighting capacity." Yet, not everyone close to the Forest Service sees problems. Steve Ellis, chairman of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, said his checks with fire staff in Oregon turned up no reports of firefighters going hungry or other support issues. But Riva Duncan, a fire duty officer on a New Mexico blaze, said even firefighters were being used to plug gaps left by job losses, exacerbating longstanding shortages of personnel to operate fire engines. "They're answering phones at the front desk, or cleaning toilets at campgrounds or mowing the lawn at administrative sites," said Duncan, a retired USFS fire chief who reenlists during fire season and helps run Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, a federal firefighter advocacy group. The fire staff officer in the Pacific Northwest said support staff had been told by managers they had to meet the Trump administration's increased timber sales and oil and gas production targets, with fewer employees, before helping firefighters. "They can claim we get all the support we need, but in reality, it isn't even close," said the fire chief, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. (Reporting By Andrew Hay; editing by Donna Bryson and Diane Craft)
CTV News
19-07-2025
- CTV News
2 killed, 1 seriously injured in service road crash near Mission, B.C.
Two men in their early 20s have died and another has serious injuries after a truck they were in crashed while on a forest service road near Mission, B.C., Thursday night. Mounties were called to the Norrish Creek Forest Service Road just before 9 p.m. after a motorist was reportedly flagged down on the road by a man who had been injured in the crash, Mission RCMP said in a statement. He had been a passenger in the truck travelling with two friends when it crashed, police said. Mission Search and Rescue were called in to assist with locating the truck, which was found in the waters of a creek approximately 300 feet down an embankment. Both men remaining inside died as a result of the crash, while the third suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, the statement said. All three were 22-year-old Abbotsford residents who had been camping with friends in the area. The cause of the crash is still being investigated, and the Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service has been called in, alongside Mission RCMP's Traffic Services Unit. Anyone who saw a red Ford Ranger with a black Canopy in the Norrish Creek area on July 17 is being advised to call police via 604-826-7161, and quote file number 25-8509.
E&E News
13-06-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Trump's watered-down wildfire order skirts fight with Congress
President Donald Trump's plan to revamp the federal response to wildfire fell short of expectations about reorganizing agencies without help from Congress. But the executive order Trump signed Wednesday still faces political headwinds. Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley called the president's order 'hasty' and 'poorly planned' as wildfire season begins. Advertisement Forest Service retirees, among others, are organizing around opposition to the idea of lessening the service's role in wildfire suppression. But supporters of the effort say it could help the government better organize around fighting fires and appears to avoid confronting Congress about a wholesale reshuffling of agencies.
CBS News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Wildland firefighting crews left short-staffed by DOGE ahead of wildfire season
Trump administration funding cuts and a loss of federal workers who help support wildland firefighting continues to make planning for the upcoming wildfire season a challenge, according to forest and fire officials in Washington state and Oregon. The biggest issue they're facing is a lack of communication from the federal government as the West faces "a pretty significant wildland fire season," Washington State Forester George Geissler said Thursday during a press conference hosted by Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. "This is the time when we make certain that we have the aviation we need, when we have the personnel we need and that all of our systems check out and are ready to go when the alarm bell rings," he said. "Without knowing what our partners are doing or not having a clear understanding of what actions are being taken, we struggle with missing the third leg of the stool that we have." The Forest Service workforce was cut in February during Elon Musk's push to reduce federal spending as part of the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. At least 1,000 National Park Service workers were let go. A court order to rehire fired workers, along with a public outcry brought many workers back to their jobs, but Murray and fire officials say it wasn't enough. Plus, the lost of experienced, trained workers set the process back. "We're hearing that don't worry, we are going to hire frontline people," Murray said. "You just let a whole bunch of frontline people go." "Funding is not in jeopardy" A spokesperson with the Department of Interior, which oversees National Parks and other public lands, said "funding is not in jeopardy." They're supporting firefighting efforts by increasing pay for federal and tribal wildland firefighters across the U.S. The administration has refused to release the exact number of fired and rehired workers, but numbers are coming in from individual forests, she said. "I've heard of at least 35 people at Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, 46 at Okanagan-Wenatchee, 21 at Colville, 15 at Gifford-Pinchot, and more at the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Olympic National Forest and Methow Valley," she said. "Here's the thing, nearly every single Forest Service employee supports fire operations in some capacity." Fire Chief Leonard Johnson, with the McLane Black Fire Department in Washington state, said they may line up aviation support and heavy equipment, but it takes trained firefighters to put the fires out. "We have a high reliance on that workforce out there," he said. "Not only at the local level, at the state level, but at the federal level to make our wildfire season successful to deal with those large fires. People are the critical component in all of this." National Forest workers reduced by thousands Merkley said Trump's budget proposal cuts forest and watershed management programs that improve forest conditions, eliminates a collaborative forest landscape restoration program and slashes 2,000 National Forest positions, on top of the thousands who left through early retirement, buyouts and layoffs. Most of those workers may not have the title "firefighter" but they all hold Red Cards - which shows they have special training to provide essential frontline support to firefighting crews, Murray said. "In fact, around three quarters of forest service workers are trained in wild land firefighting," she said. "They provide crucial surge capacity when a crisis strikes." Trail maintenance crews ensure the paths are clear for firefighting personnel and equipment, Murray said. Biologists conduct testing to make decisions about prescribed burns and fuel reduction planning. "We are here today to pull the fire alarm, and we're gonna set off some sirens," she said. "We're going to keep focused on this, and we are gonna keep pushing back. There is just too much at stake to do anything less."
CBS News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Funding cuts leave wildland firefighting crews short-staffed ahead of wildfire season
Trump administration funding cuts and a loss of federal workers who help support wildland firefighting continues to make planning for the upcoming wildfire season a challenge, according to forest and fire officials in Washington state and Oregon. The biggest issue they're facing is a lack of communication from the federal government as the West faces "a pretty significant wildland fire season," Washington State Forester George Geissler said Thursday during a press conference hosted by Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. "This is the time when we make certain that we have the aviation we need, when we have the personnel we need and that all of our systems check out and are ready to go when the alarm bell rings," he said. "Without knowing what our partners are doing or not having a clear understanding of what actions are being taken, we struggle with missing the third leg of the stool that we have." The Forest Service workforce was cut in February during Elon Musk's push to reduce federal spending, and at least 1,000 National Park Service workers were let go. A court order to rehire fired workers, along with a public outcry brought many workers back to their jobs, but Murray and fire officials say it wasn't enough. Plus, the lost of experienced, trained workers set the process back. "We're hearing that don't worry, we are going to hire frontline people," Murray said. "You just let a whole bunch of frontline people go." "Funding is not in jeopardy" A spokesperson with the Department of Interior, which oversees National Parks and other public lands, said "funding is not in jeopardy." They're supporting firefighting efforts by increasing pay for federal and tribal wildland firefighters across the U.S. The administration has refused to release the exact number of fired and rehired workers, but numbers are coming in from individual forests, she said. "I've heard of at least 35 people at Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, 46 at Okanagan-Wenatchee, 21 at Colville, 15 at Gifford-Pinchot, and more at the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Olympic National Forest and Methow Valley," she said. "Here's the thing, nearly every single Forest Service employee supports fire operations in some capacity." Fire Chief Leonard Johnson, with the McLane Black Fire Department in Washington state, said they may line up aviation support and heavy equipment, but it takes trained firefighters to put the fires out. "We have a high reliance on that workforce out there," he said. "Not only at the local level, at the state level, but at the federal level to make our wildfire season successful to deal with those large fires. People are the critical component in all of this." National Forest workers reduced by thousands Merkley said Trump's budget proposal cuts forest and watershed management programs that improve forest conditions, eliminates a collaborative forest landscape restoration program and slashes 2,000 National Forest positions, on top of the thousands who left through early retirement, buyouts and layoffs. Most of those workers may not have the title "firefighter" but they all hold Red Cards - which shows they have special training to provide essential frontline support to firefighting crews, Murray said. "In fact, around three quarters of forest service workers are trained in wild land firefighting," she said. "They provide crucial surge capacity when a crisis strikes." Trail maintenance crews ensure the paths are clear for firefighting personnel and equipment, Murray said. Biologists conduct testing to make decisions about prescribed burns and fuel reduction planning. "We are here today to pull the fire alarm, and we're gonna set off some sirens," she said. "We're going to keep focused on this, and we are gonna keep pushing back. There is just too much at stake to do anything less."
