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Controlled burns reduce wildfire risk, but they require trained staff and funding − this could be a rough year

Some of the Forest Service staff who were fired or put in limbo by the Trump administration are those who do research or collect and communicate critical data about forests and fire risk. Other fired staff provided support so crews could clear flammable debris and carry out fuel treatments such as prescribed burns, thinning forests and building fire breaks.

Losing people in these roles is like firing all primary care doctors and leaving only EMTs. Both are clearly needed. As many people know from emergency room bills, preventing emergencies is less costly than dealing with the damage later.

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To save our trees, we must burn down our forests

The best way to save the oak, and the countless critters that rely on it, is to return fire to our landscape. This might seem counterintuitive when wildfires, particularly in the West, spin more out of control each season. But for the sake of nature, we need more fire rather than less. Actually, if the goal is to reduce the danger of wildfires, we also need more fire rather than less.

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Draft Trump order could endanger firefighters by changing needed aircraft requirements, Washington state officials warn

“This EO has the potential to shift responsibility for fires to private entities more interested in their corporate bottom line than the lives of the people wildfire impacts…” Rodruck said. “…The last thing we should do is make wildland fire fighting less safe, but that’s exactly what this order, as it is written currently, will do.”

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Trump considering plan to change how the country fights wildfires

Some firefighters say the attempt to put out all wildfires is both unrealistic and counterproductive. Fire is a natural part of the landscape, they say, and allowing lower-intensity burns in certain areas clears vegetation and prevents more catastrophic fires that rage through years of built-up fuel.

“Fire exclusion is the problem,” said Joe Stutler, who has 57 years of firefighting experience and serves as a commander for federal incident management teams. “We need more fire. We don’t need less fire on the landscape.”

Stutler also said it is unrealistic to think that firefighters could respond within 30 minutes to wildfires that often break out in remote wilderness areas. Such an expectation could lead to firefighters taking more dangerous risks, he said.

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Northwest Forest Plan advisers told their committee will be disbanded

Federal officials are preparing to disband an advisory committee tasked with guiding policies for millions of acres of national forests in the Pacific Northwest, according to two committee members.

Tribal leaders, environmental advocates, timber representatives and local government officials were among the 21 members of the Northwest Forest Plan federal advisory committee. They’ve been meeting in person over dayslong meetings since summer 2023, hashing out how to tackle wildfires, pests and diseases across nearly 25 million acres of national forests in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.

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Thousands flee after Japan's biggest wildfire in decades

TOKYO: Thousands of people have been evacuated from parts of northern Japan as the country's largest wildfire in three decades raged unabated on Sunday (Mar 2) after killing at least one person, officials said.

Around 2,000 people fled areas around the northern Japan city of Ofunato to stay with friends or relatives, while more than 1,200 were evacuated to shelters, according to officials.

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The Firefighting Fire Sale: After U.S. Forest Service layoffs, will for-profit contractors protect you from wildfires?

For-profit operators don’t have an obligation to stage equipment in risky areas or dispatch support to other locations — private businesses can simply decline a contract if the job isn’t profitable. The free market might not make saving your home an attractive proposition. 

Reducing federal land management — whether that’s selling off public lands or turning control over to states — fragments oversight and reduces resources. Unlike the Forest Service, which has coordinated interagency support, many states lack the funding, staff, or infrastructure to handle large-scale fires

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Mass firings hamstring federal land agencies and wildfire response

From dispatchers to radio operators, trail crews to scientists, fired employees worked a range of important jobs needed to plan prescribed burns, organize suppression efforts and protect landscapes and communities against the growing threats of catastrophic fire.

“People living in fire-prone areas need to be aware,” the dispatcher said. “There might not be people to come help you anymore – you are going to be more on your own than you’ve ever been.”

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Trump funding freeze halts wildfire prevention work

The Trump administration has halted funding for federal programs to reduce wildfire risk in western U.S. states and has frozen hiring of seasonal firefighters as part of broad cuts to government spending, according to organizations impacted by the moves.

The Oregon-based non-profit Lomakatsi Restoration Project said its contracts with the federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to reduce hazardous fuels in Oregon, California and Idaho, have been frozen.

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Oregon senators call for federal firefighters to be exempt from hiring freeze

Oregon U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have joined over a dozen other lawmakers, all Democrats, in calling on the administration to issue an exemption for thousands of seasonal firefighters so federal agencies can prepare for “what’s expected to be another devastating wildfire year.”

“The Administration must not sacrifice the safety of the American people for the benefit of implementing a political agenda,” their letter reads.

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Loper Bright opens scrutiny of Forest Service's war on wildfires

Environmentalists say USFS abuses discretion to favor logging. Loper Bright offers new avenues to challenge project studies

The US Forest Service is fighting to keep in place a plan to raze the equivalent of 500 Central Parks in California’s forests as wildfires ravaging the southern part of the state put a spotlight on the agency’s management of these natural disasters.

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