Federal Funding Cuts Spark Concern Among Wildland Firefighters

Federal funding and staff cuts are undermining state and federal agencies’ ability to prevent and fight wildfires, according to reporting by Mark Olalde for Pro Publica.

In the wake of devastating fires in the Los Angeles region, state and local agencies in California and across the country need support more than ever. Yet “The uncertainty has limited training and postponed work to reduce flammable vegetation in areas vulnerable to wildfire. It has also left some firefighters with little choice but to leave the force, their colleagues said.”

After recent cuts, some seasonal workers’ contracts were suspended, while firefighters headed to support a major prescribed burn in Florida were turned back. “Prescribed burns help prevent catastrophic wildfires by clearing vegetation that serves as fuel, and the meticulously planned 151,434-acre Florida fire — to cover more than six times the land area of nearby Miami — was also meant to protect a Native American reservation and improve ecological biodiversity.” Roughly two-thirds of prescribed burns in the nation are in the Southeast, where they help minimize fuel for naturally occurring fires and promote biodiversity.

Federal firefighter forces already faced challenges in hiring and retaining workers due to low pay and high-risk work. Now, agencies are unsure how to proceed, or when — and if — they will have access to resources again. 

“All this comes as wildfires are growing larger and more catastrophic,” Olalde points out. “The area of land burned annually over the past decade was 43% larger than the average since the federal government began tracking it in 1983, according to data from the National Interagency Coordination Center.”