Trump plans to merge wildland firefighting efforts into one agency, but ex-officials warn of chaos

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS Mont President Donald Trump s administration is trying to merge the regime s wildland firefighting efforts into a single agency a move various former federal leaders warn could increase the pitfall of catastrophic blazes and ultimately cost billions of dollars Trump s budget would centralize firefighting efforts now split among five agencies and two Cabinet departments into a single Federal Wildland Fire Arrangement under the U S Interior Department RELATED Will Cal Fire get funding for more year-round firefighters in California s state budget That would mean shifting thousands of personnel from the U S Forest Operation where greater part federal firefighters now work into the new agency with fire season already underway Budget documents do not disclose how much the change could cost or save Related Articles Map Transiting Fire in Southern California East Bay firefighters respond to vegetation fire State Farm seeks to boost California home insurance rate hike to Analysis When a neighborhood floods foreclosures often follow Will Cal Fire get funding for more year-round firefighters in California s state budget The Trump administration in its first months temporarily cut off money for wildfire mitigation work and sharply reduced the ranks of federal governing body firefighters through layoffs and retirement That resulted in the loss of more than qualified firefighters in the Forest Facility an arm of the U S Department of Agriculture and hundreds of people at Interior according to the National Association of Forest Arrangement Retirees and Democratic lawmakers The personnel declines and proposed agency reshuffling come as atmosphere change makes fires more severe by warming and drying the landscape More than wildfires across the U S burned almost million acres last year Interior Secretary Doug Burgum revealed Tuesday during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee that the new fire amenity would streamline work to stamp out blazes We want more firefighters on the front lines and less people trying to make manual decisions on how to allocate guidance and personnel Burgum reported We ve got duplicative and ineffective structures that could be improved But organizations representing firefighters and former Forest Facility bureaucrats say it would be costly to restructure firefighting efforts and cause major disruptions in the midst of fire season Over the long term they explained it would shift the focus from preventing fires through forest thinning and controlled burns to extinguishing them even in cases where fire could have beneficial effects You will not suppress your way to success in dealing with catastrophic fires It s going to create greater danger and it s going to be particularly chaotic if you implement it going into fire season mentioned Steve Ellis the chairman of the forest institution retirees group and a former wildfire development commander RELATED California bill would give homeowners cash to fireproof their properties The group which includes several former Forest Facility chiefs noted in a letter to lawmakers that consolidation of firefighting work could in fact increase the likelihood of more large catastrophic fires putting more communities firefighters and guidance at threat Cleaving the Forest Operation s firefighting duties from its role as a land manager would be like separating cojoined twins it would basically kill the agency commented Timothy Ingalsbee with Firefighters United for Safety Ethics and Ecology a Eugene Oregon-based advocacy group Another destructive fire season is expected this year driven by above normal temperatures for majority of of the country according to federal agents More than million acres have burned in including in Arizona Minnesota California Colorado Nebraska New Jersey and other states The Trump administration proposal has a few bipartisan advocacy with California Democratic Sen Alex Padilla and Montana Republican Sen Tim Sheehy sponsoring act that s similar Before his vote last year Sheehy founded an aerial firefighting company that relies heavily on federal contracts A prior proposal to merge the Forest Facility and Interior to improve firefighting was uncovered to have essential drawbacks by the Congressional Research System in a document A wildfire agency would likely focus on fire control largely because acres burned are the majority readily measurable performance standard the overview noted Wildfire management engagements that seek to reduce damages such as protecting individual structures and reducing biomass fuels are less likely to be emphasized Burgum indicated the administration was not waiting for the bill to pass and he would work with Agriculture Sec Brooke Rollins to begin coordinating operations for the current fire season The Forest Utility workforce was initially cut in February during billionaire Elon Musk s push to reduce federal spending and at least National Park System workers also were let go A court order to rehire fired workers along with a inhabitants outcry brought a large number of workers back to their jobs but Democratic lawmakers have disclosed it s not enough The Forest Arrangement had about wildland firefighters as of May with a goal of by mid-July Interior employs about wildland firefighters spread between the National Park Organization Fish and Wildlife Facility Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management State personnel in Washington and Oregon disclosed this month that a loss of federal workers who help endorsement wildland firefighting is making planning for the upcoming wildfire season a challenge The administration has not issued the exact number of fired and rehired workers In a separate action aimed at wildfires the Trump administration last month rolled back environmental safeguards around future logging projects on more than half of U S national forests The crisis designation covers square miles square kilometers of terrain primarily in the West but also in the South around the Great Lakes and in New England Greater part of those forests are considered to have high wildfire menace and countless are in decline because of insects and infection