SF Chronicle: Trump’s spending freeze halts key California wildfire work: ‘We can’t even buy the rakes’
By Julie Johnson
A key federal agency overseeing 15 million acres of public lands in California has halted some critical fire prevention work because of the massive freeze in government funding directed by President Donald Trump.
The Bureau of Land Management confirmed it had stopped all plans to clear hazardous overgrowth on public lands across the country if the projects were to be paid for through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The law was slated to fund $113 million worth of fuels reduction work on 770,000 acres nationwide this year, a bureau spokesperson said.
Trump has previously chastised California for not “raking” its forests, but his efforts to slash the federal budget and workforce — including an estimated 3,400 U.S. Forest Service positions — have federal lawmakers, firefighters and others concerned the federal government will fall short of its important role preventing and battling wildfires.
“Any delay just adds to the risk and potential damage if or when a fire breaks out,” U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla told the Chronicle.
“We can’t even buy the rakes, if we wanted to rake the forest,” said Steven Gutierrez with the National Federation of Federal Employees, the union representing federal workers.
The projects likely involve tens of thousands of acres in California, although the agency declined to provide details about which state programs were being reviewed. The bureau reported treating about 24,600 acres with fire prevention methods like prescribed fire in 2023, the latest data available on a state fire prevention dashboard.
A Department of Interior spokesperson emphasized that the vegetation reduction work had not necessarily been cut but is “undergoing review” to determine whether “funding decisions to be consistent with the President’s Executive Orders” as well as “all applicable laws, rules, regulations and orders.”
Other fire prevention work will continue if it was funded by other sources, such as the agency’s annual budget.
Fire experts blame overgrown forests and brushlands for worsening California’s wildfire crisis, alongside periods of drought and rising temperatures exacerbated by climate change. Experts say that healthier forests in California are less dense and more resilient to fire.
A U.S. Forest Service spokesperson said that no wildland firefighting or other public safety positions were cut in staff reductions.
Gutierrez, a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter, said that the cuts involved key support roles for firefighting, if not permanent staff firefighter positions.
“The workforce is deeply concerned the government doesn’t have their back,” he said.
Padilla said that he and other federal lawmakers were concerned that the Forest Service would be next to lose funding for fire prevention work funded under the infrastructure law.
The Forest Service oversees 22 million acres in California and treated nearly 257,000 acres with prescribed fire, vegetation thinning and fire-prevention grazing in 2023, according to the state’s dashboard.
“We should be doing anything and everything we can to prepare for the potential for fires later in the year,” Padilla said. “That includes fuel management, and that includes hiring and training more firefighters.”
Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Fire Network, said that burning away overgrowth with prescribed fires takes a lot of preparation, and freezing these projects was “inefficient.”
“I’m just curious what the plan is,” Quinn-Davidson said, “how are we going to prepare for fire season?”
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