Until recently, David Calkin was a senior scientist for the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station. Now a wildfire consultant in Missoula, Montana, Calkin says that staff cuts in the agency have already hampered its fire-fighting ability.
Under the Forest Service’s planned reorganization, Calkin says there will be even fewer skilled management teams to respond to fires. The question, he asks, is not whether the fires will come. It is whether we are still capable of responding effectively when they do.