October 28, 2024
Last week, the US Forest Service announced it would stop prescribed burning in California “for the foreseeable future,” stating that the decision was made as a precautionary measure to ensure the availability of staff and equipment in case of potential wildfires. But temps are falling across California, and state, tribal authorities, and prescribed burn associations have commenced with their prescribed burns. If the federal agency doesn’t hold up its end of the work, all that mitigation work can be undone.
To grasp the impact of the Forest Service’s decision on California, it’s essential to understand the history of the state and the intricate mosaic of private, state, and federal land that constitutes the forests. Over the past 100 years, the state and federal governments relied on a “paramilitary-like program” that focused on fire suppression by rapidly mobilizing firefighters and equipment. Very little was done regarding fire prevention besides creating the famous Smokey Bear ad campaign. One of the problems was that colonialist attitudes of fire officials constantly disregarded the valuable knowledge of forest management practices held by California’s Indigenous communities. One such practice is prescribed burning, which involves intentionally setting controlled fires to remove dry vegetation that could serve as “ladder fuel,” allowing wildfires to spread to taller vegetation. Without this mitigation work, the buildup of vegetation and increasing average global temperatures has created the conditions for the mega-wildfires we see in the West today.
These destructive fires have over time shifted state and federal policies toward wildfire mitigation. California’s recently enacted 2024-25 budget includes $4.2 billion and 12,512 positions for CAL FIRE, which provides resource management and fire protection services across 31 million acres of state forests. However, California relies on the federal government to maintain areas outside state and local control, mainly the 20 million acres of National Forests managed by the Forest Service. The Forest Service, like many other federal agencies, lacks stable long-term funding because the continuing resolution process constantly threatens its programs. In the past, these issues have had dire consequences for Californians.
In 2021, the Caldor Fire started in the El Dorado National Forest, and the Forest Service knew this region was at risk. The agency had created a model two decades before the fire predicting the danger and proposed the Trestle Project in 2013 to manage federal land near the town of Grizzly Flats. The project was expected to be completed by 2020. However, an investigation by CapRadio and the California Newsroom discovered only 2,137 acres of the planned 15,000, or 14 percent of the project, had been completed before August 14, 2021. That was the day the Caldor Fire started, and 48 hours later, the fire had leveled Grizzly Flats.
According to NPR, the Trestle Project faced “staffing shortages, pushback from environmental groups, too many days when prescribed burns would be dangerous due to hotter, drier conditions caused by climate change,” and, most importantly, a lack of funding. Unfortunately, the Trestle Project’s setbacks left Grizzly Flats and other El Dorado County communities vulnerable to the scenario the Forest Service had modeled. Tellingly, as the fire moved east toward Lake Tahoe, the community of Kirkwood was spared thanks to an escaped prescribed burn in 2019.
This scenario shows what happens when Congress is less committed than California to tackling forest management. With wildfire management funding constantly tied up in unpredictable budget debates, the current state-federal partnership is fragile and based on the whims of the legislative and executive branches, which can withhold funding based on which political party is currently in power. The Forest Service’s latest decision is the consequence of these issues.
Congress must commit to forest management by providing stable and reliable funding for wildfire prevention. Forest management is not a partisan issue – it is a matter of public safety, environmental protection, and economic sustainability. It’s well past time to put politics aside and cooperate with California and other fire-prone states to ensure that we provide the resources needed to manage forests, reduce the danger of wildfires, and safeguard communities.
EDIT: The original version of this article referred to Smokey Bear as Smokey the Bear. Officially, the mascot is named Smokey Bear. In popular culture, the “the” was added by a song in 1952 by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins and stuck with the general public.
