America is losing its war against wildfire

Forest Service incident commander Dan Dallas recounts a 2023 Six Rivers National Forest fire where officials let flames creep through the forest floor instead of suppressing it fully, reducing fuel for future fires. That approach has become harder to repeat, as hotter and drier conditions shrink the windows for such management, and the Trump administration has returned to a policy of full suppression on every fire, regardless of threat to life or property. Megafires now account for most firefighting spending, which is ten times higher than three decades ago.

This year the U.S. has already logged more than 53,000 wildfires burning over 8 million acres, about 3 million above the decade's average, with nearly 73% of the Intermountain West in severe to exceptional drought. An August memo from federal fire logistics coordinators warned resource availability is ‘critically low’ with commitments near all-time peaks. A 2015 Forest Service futures panel had already concluded the suppression-only approach would fail under any plausible future conditions.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.