How Trump’s mass layoffs raise the risk of wildfires in the U.S. West, according to fired workers

U.S. Forest Service crew members put tree branches into a wood chipper as they prepare the area for a prescribed burn in the Tahoe National Forest, June 6, 2023, near Downieville, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)

SEATTLE (AP) — The termination letters that ended the careers of thousands of U.S. Forest Service employees mean fewer people and less resources will be available to help prevent and fight wildfires, raising the specter of even more destructive blazes across the American West, fired workers and officials said.

The Forest Service firings — on the heels of deadly blazes that ripped through Los Angeles last month — are part of a wave of federal worker layoffs, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting measures reverberate nationwide.

Workers who maintained trails, removed combustible debris from forests, supported firefighters and secured funds for wildfire mitigation say staffing cuts threaten public safety, especially in the West, where drier and hotter conditions linked to climate change have increased the intensity of wildfires.

“I’m terrified of that,” said Tanya Torst, who was fired from her position as a U.S. Forest Service partnership coordinator in Chico, California, on Feb. 14. Torst, whose probationary period was set to end in March, worked with groups to bring in nearly US$12 million for removing dead trees and other fuels in the Mendocino National Forest.

“This is 100 per cent a safety thing,” she said of her concerns, recalling the deadly Paradise blaze that killed 85 people east of Chico in 2018. “That’s why I’m speaking out.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, said in a statement that Secretary Brooke Rollins supports Trump’s directive to fire about 2,000 “probationary, non-firefighting employees,” which he said was for efficiency’s sake. Rollins is committed to “preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted,” the statement said.

The statement didn’t address the fired workers who were responsible for removing combustible fuels and other projects aiming to lower a wildfire’s intensity.

The Trump administration has frozen funds for wildfire prevention programs supported by legislation championed by former President Joe Biden, The Associated Press reported. Programs not funded by that legislation can continue, an Interior Department statement said.

U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier, a Washington state Democrat, said on the social platform X that the Forest Service layoffs are already hurting the state, “and it is only going to get worse. Fire season is coming.”

The Washington state Department of Natural Resources said the firings forced them to develop contingency plans to deal with a “degraded federal force this coming fire season.”

Melanie Mattox Green, who was fired from her land management and environmental planning job at the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, said their fire-prevention efforts prioritized areas where towns border forest lands. Staffing cuts put those towns at risk, she said.

“If a fire breaks out now without these projects occurring, that fire is going to be far more dangerous to our local communities,” she said.

The cuts also mean fewer people will keep trails free of fallen trees and other debris, she said. Maintaining trails is critical in remote areas that firefighters access by foot.

“Without those trails being cleared, it means that now firefighters cannot easily and more effectively get to these fires to fight them,” she said.

Many Forest Service workers who don’t occupy official firefighter positions still have firefighting certifications, known as a “red card,” that must be renewed annually. Josh Vega, who maintained 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometres) of trails as a forestry technician in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana before being fired, said his crew was the first to arrive at a wildfire that broke out in 2023.

For about two days, Vega’s crew monitored the blaze before firefighters arrived. “We spent the next few days keeping an eye on the fire, making sure that the trailheads were all closed and that the public knew what was happening so that they wouldn’t find themselves in a predicament.”

Many Forest Service operations involve supporting firefighters beyond fire season, including surveying areas for prescribed burns or ensuring trail access, said Luke Tobin, who was fired from his forestry technician role in Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest.

“Everybody helps with fire in some aspect, some way, shape or form,” he said.

Gregg Bafundo, who was fired last week from his post as a wilderness ranger and wildland firefighter at the Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest, said the staffing cuts came at a critical time.

“This is the time of year when they hire everybody,” he said during a press conference organized by Washington Sen. Patty Murray. “It’s the time of year when firefighters renew their red cards and practice redeploying their fire shelters. This is when they train to be ready to fight next summer’s fires.

“We can’t train while the fire is burning over the hill.”

Rush reported from Portland, Oregon.

Martha Bellisle And Claire Rush, The Associated Press