Trump Cuts Mean USFS Increasingly Unable To Perform Fuels Reduction - i.e. Unable To Cut Risks Of Massive Fires
For more than 15 years, Scott Fitzwilliams led what he affectionately calls the “crown jewel” of U.S. federal land — a swath of more than 2.2 million acres in Colorado that includes world class ski resorts such as Vail and Aspen, and sees a lot of wildfire. So when he was told in February to fire more than a dozen U.S. Forest Service employees from White River National Forest, one of his main concerns was: Will enough people be around to make sure the next big blaze doesn’t get out of control?
One of the people eliminated from Fitzwilliams’s team was involved in fuels reduction — ensuring that future wildfires will have fewer trees and less debris to consume as they tear through the forest. Fitzwilliams resigned in protest over the nature of the cuts, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce by eliminating tens of thousands of government jobs. Eight months later, a new report confirms some of Fitzwilliams’s fears.
A data analysis shared with The Washington Post found that as of the end of September, Forest Service work to reduce fire-fueling debris was down nearly 40 percent on this date compared with where it has been on average over the previous four years, according to Grassroots Wildland Firefighters. The group, which advocates for active and retired federal wildland firefighters, found that 1.7 million acres had been treated this year, compared with an average of 3.6 million acres annually from 2021 to 2024.
The head of the Forest Service has said that some of the decrease in addressing fire fuel has been a result of more logistical and operational challenges, rather than workforce cuts. Still, even as the Trump administration said wildland firefighters were exempt from federal job cuts, it eliminated hundreds of Forest Service positions, roles that support firefighters by planning fuel reduction, analyzing forest health and even cleaning toilets on National Forest land. The government shutdown may only further hinder these efforts, federal employees said, as prescribed burns are canceled and uncertainty grows over funding and personnel. “Communities across the West should be absolutely concerned,” Fitzwilliams said. Hazardous-fuels reduction involves a lot more than raking dried leaves off trails or trimming grass. When wildfires tend to be quieter, in early spring or late fall, forest officials focus on lowering major risks. That can include thinning the forest by cutting down trees so future fires can’t jump from one crown to the next, or carrying out prescribed burns — intentional fires ignited under safe conditions to prevent more out-of-control burns in the future.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/10/31/forest-service-job-cuts-wildfire-fuel-reduction/