Western states are running out of money to fight wildfires, according to reporting in High Country News. As climate change fuels hotter fires that occur year-round, states routinely spend well over their forecasted wildfire budgets. For example, Oregon spent more than $350 million fighting wildfires in 2024, far exceeding the $10 million it had allocated for wildfire that year.
A 2022 analysis by Pew Charitable Trusts found that most states use their general fund, or revenue from state taxes and other fees, to cover wildland fire costs, pitting firefighting and fire prevention efforts against top state priorities. Skyrocketing suppression costs have also led to a reduction in fire mitigation treatments, like prescribed burns and mechanical thinning, increasing wildfire risk on state forest land and pouring metaphorical fuel on the wildfire cycle.
Some states are tackling this issue with new taxes or wildfire-specific accounts. Oregon passed a new nicotine tax to fund wildfire prevention last year, and Utah put $150 million into a new wildfire fund. Still, costs continue to rise, and drought is driving above-average wildfire predictions for the West this summer.
Burgum struggles to defend public lands budget
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum struggled to defend the Trump administration’s disastrous public lands agenda in congressional appropriations subcommittee hearings p;last week in both the House and the Senate. Members grilled him on cuts to the National Park Service, a billion-dollar payout to kill offshore wind energy, and a $10 billion request for a NPS “beautification” program in D.C. Read more in a new Westwise blog post by CWP Communications Manager Kate Groetzinger.
Burgum appears before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this morning.
Quick hits
The ramifications of record-shattering heat on the West’s ecosystems
How the Lolo National Forest planners are bracing for a roadless rule repeal
Trump signs bill ending protections for Boundary Waters watershed
University of Utah creates critical minerals institute
Energy execs push WY lawmakers to carry out Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda
Colorado farmers tighten their belts ahead of summer drought
NM breaks ground on Reforestation Center, with plans to plant 5 million seedlings a year
Rep. Davids introduces Truth in National Parks Act to protect Native American history
Quote of the day
What we’re seeing right now is a deliberate attempt to erase the experiences of Native communities and other marginalized groups from places that are supposed to educate and inform the public. That’s unacceptable.”
—U.S. Representative Sharice Davids, Native News Online
Picture This
California’s ocean is not a sacrifice zone for Big Oil.
With Donald Trump plotting to sell off our beaches to his fossil fuel industry donors, we’re celebrating California Ocean Day by reaffirming our commitment to protect every inch of it.
Feature image: A prescribed burn in Oregon on Bureau of Land Management land in 2016; Source: Justin Robinson for the BLM via Flickr