PORTLAND In an attempt to avert devastating fires like the ones that recently swept through Southern California, President Donald Trump’s administration is delaying funding for wildfire mitigation projects supported by legislation supported by his Democratic predecessor.
The ruling contradicts Trump’s repeated assertion that, in order to prevent wildfires, communities must remove flammable objects such as fallen branches and undergrowth. He referred to this as “management of the floor” during his visit to Los Angeles last month.
In an email, Interior Department spokesperson Elizabeth Peace stated that mitigation efforts are being reviewed to make sure they comply with Trump’s executive orders.
Only projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act—two key initiatives of former President Joe Biden’s administration—are subject to the scrutiny. Approximately $3 billion was allocated for programs that reduce hazardous fuels and mitigate wildfires.
According to Peace, if those programs are supported by additional congressional appropriations, they will continue.
The nonprofit forest management organization Lomakatsi Restoration Project, which creates and carries out initiatives to lessen the threat of wildfires and hazardous fuels in Oregon, northern California, and Idaho, has halted work on projects financed by Biden’s legislation, which accounts for 65% of its $17 million budget.
When federal officials informed him that the funding was frozen pending review and that there was no indication of when it would be released, executive director Marko Bey said he fired 15 full-time staff members.
Not knowing if we will be paid or if the administration will eventually revoke some of this, it simply doesn’t make good business sense to continue operating, Bey stated. He described the situation as extremely difficult.
Forests can avoid becoming tinderboxes by implementing mitigation measures, such as using logging equipment to remove small and dead trees or conducting controlled burns. In anticipation of warmer months when fires may be more intense, it frequently occurs in the winter and spring. Though fires can happen all year round due to warmer, drier weather made worse by climate change, the wildfire season normally begins in May and ends in November.
The most recent instance occurred last month in the Los Angeles region, where fires destroyed almost 17,000 buildings and claimed the lives of at least 29 people in what is expected to be one of the most expensive natural disasters in American history.
FILE – On November 17, 2018, President Donald Trump visits a neighborhood devastated by wildfires in Paradise, California, where he speaks with Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, California Gov. Jerry Brown, Paradise Mayor Jody Jones, and FEMA Administrator Brock Long, from left.
File: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Since his first term, when he traveled to California following the 2018 Camp Fire that claimed 85 lives, Trump has discussed forest management.
“You need to clean the floors,” he said. The forest’s floors are crucial, you know. He claimed that raking, cleaning, and other tasks take up a lot of time in Finland.
In 2020, he voiced his displeasure with California officials and issued an executive order aimed at improving the management of federal lands.
I told him, “You need to clean your floors and your forests.” There are broken trees and leaves that have been there for a very long time. They are so flammable that you touch them and they catch fire.
He went on to say that since they don’t listen to us, we might just have to make them pay for it.
Democratic lawmakers have demanded the resumption of federal funding.
In a letter to the administration on Tuesday, Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Patty Murray of Washington, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico stated that stopping these payments is not only illegal but also puts our rural communities in jeopardy by taking away an essential part of their economies and postponing important work to reduce the risk of wildfire.
White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields defended the administration’s strategy.
“There is still a desire for this work to be done even though there is a review,” he said. As crucial as making sure California is restored is making sure the funds are managed properly.
Fields added that President Trump is the strongest supporter of returning California to its natural splendor, which is why he visited the state during his first week in office and is still applying intense pressure on state and local governments to lower the obstacles to restoration.
A $1 billion grant program that assists local jurisdictions in improving their fire preparedness through neighborhood risk assessments and community outreach initiatives is also being disrupted by the Trump-ordered review.
According to Kimiko Barrett of Headwaters Economics in Bozeman, Montana, who collaborated with the state’s counties to obtain Community Wildfire Defense Grants, grantees were informed on Monday that their payments had been suspended for a minimum of ten days.
“We have learned that this is a crisis involving very specific risk reduction efforts coming out of Los Angeles,” Barrett said. Communities won’t have the resources to carry out the crucial mitigation work that is required without this program.
Concerns have also been raised regarding the potential effects on seasonal wildland firefighters of Trump’s recent executive order to reduce the federal workforce.
As public safety personnel, firefighters are exempt from the order, according to Office of Personnel Management spokesperson McLaurine Pinover.
However, delays have resulted from confusion. Uncertainty over whether firefighters are exempt from the freeze halted the hiring process for seasonal wildland firefighter positions, according to Ben McLane, a fire crew captain for the U.S. Forest Service in Washington state.
The candidates McLane has chosen for his crew have been given some of the paperwork they must finish, including fingerprinting and drug and medical tests, before they can be formally hired. However, he stated that the process has not been finished because human resources does not have agency authorization to proceed.
He said, “We’re not being told anything, and we’re really confused.” I’m not sure who has the authority to declare that firefighters are exempt from the hiring freeze because they are a vital component of public safety. However, whoever is responsible for it must say it, as there will be instances where people call 911 and there aren’t enough firefighters to respond.
Although the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law permitted modest increases to the 18,700 federal firefighters in 2022, problems with retention and understaffing of the workforce still exist. In a second letter to the administration this week, a group of Democratic senators claimed that the U.S. Forest Service’s firefighter attrition rate has been 45% over the last four years.
Therefore, instead of creating more uncertainty by imposing an arbitrary freeze, we should concentrate on hiring and retaining this vital workforce, the lawmakers wrote.
–The Associated Press/Claire Rush, Chris Megerian, and Matthew Brown
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