A group of mostly Western lawmakers is raising concerns about the rollout of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, which officially launched in January.
The 11 senators and representatives - all Democrats - said that the consolidation of four Department of Interior agencies’ wildfire programs is being done “without adequate analysis, transparency, or planning to prevent disruption during what is expected to be a significant fire season or to safeguard long-term wildfire preparedness.”
Asked to respond to the concerns, an Interior representative wrote that “the claim that wildfire operations are being disrupted is false.”
“Firefighters remain in place,” the agency said. “Aviation assets are deployed. Incident command structures are unchanged. Modernizing leadership in Washington does not pause fire response in the field.”
“For years, DOI wildfire programs have operated across fragmented structures that slow decision-making and dilute accountability,” Interior said of the system that preceded the creation of the new agency. “The U.S. Wildland Fire Service streamlines leadership while preserving frontline capability and land management authorities.”
In their letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the lawmakers asked for implementation of the Wildland Fire Service to be delayed until Congress is given answers to a number of questions, including what the pay structure will be for service personnel and who will make resource decisions during a fire.
“These are reasonable questions to ask, they're good questions to ask,” said Tyson Bertone Riggs, co-founder of the Alliance for Wildfire Resilience, a policy nonprofit. “That's not to assume that there hasn't been significant thinking that's already gone into some of the answers.”
“I would hope that the administration and the agencies are able to begin opening a line of communication with Congress to collectively sort through what it is that we want to see in a fire system of any kind, wherever that ultimately lands,” he added.
He’d also like to see states, tribes and local governments also involved in “this change effort.”
“The Department [of Interior] will continue engaging with Congress through appropriate channels, but delaying needed modernization does not strengthen wildfire preparedness,” Interior said in its response. “It strengthens bureaucracy.”
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
