Wildland firefighting crews left short-staffed by DOGE ahead of wildfire season
Source: CBS News/AP
Updated on: May 9, 2025 / 12:01 PM EDT
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."
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-washington-oregon-parks-workers-funding-cuts-challenge-wildfires/
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as the winter is "generally" their "dry season" and the summer is the "rainy season" (which made it a perfect winter haven). And to prove it, the longleaf pine evolved and adapted to the periodic/seasonal wildfires as a tree native to the SE U.S.(which are red states) including NC, FL & TX where there are some surviving stands of them.
I ended up learning about them because when my sister moved into her suburban Philly house almost 25 years ago, the previous owner had actually planted one in the front yard as sort of an ornamental addition - way the hell out of its natural range. And it is STILL there thanks to climate change. It was fascinating because those trees start out as what looks like a tuft of grass for about the first 7 - 10 years before sending up a trunk (hers was already grown and maybe about 15' tall when she moved in and it's now double the height - tall and skinny)!
