PHOENIX — Concerns about a sharp decline in wildfire prevention work across the West have been raised by a group of U.S. senators, who say millions of Americans may face greater risk heading into next fire season.
New federal data reviewed by advocates indicates a significant slowdown in hazardous fuels reduction on national forest land; work considered essential in keeping wildfires from rapidly escalating.
A new analysis of U.S. Forest Service data shows a 38% drop this year in acres thinned, cleared or intentionally burned to reduce dangerous fuel buildup. Those findings were released by Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, which says the steep decline could have serious consequences for Western communities.
“We've known for decades that we have catastrophic wildfire risk here in Arizona, and that the solution to addressing that is to remove small diameter trees and then restore some fire to the landscape to kind of keep that natural system going,” said Melanie Colavito, deputy director of the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University.
The analysis was overseen by longtime federal firefighter Bobbie Scopa, who now helps lead Grassroots Wildland Firefighters.
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“For fiscal year 2025, we saw a precipitous drop off in the number of acres that have been treated for fuel reduction work,” Scopa said.
Her group attributes the decline to staffing cuts, early retirements, and mass firings earlier this year, saying the Forest Service was left unable to keep pace with its workload.
“You can't remove thousands of employees and expect the same amount of work is going to get done,” Scopa said.
The Forest Service has pushed back, saying it has adequate staffing and has treated more than two million acres nationwide through mitigation this year.
The agency says it surpassed its annual targets in some Western regions, though Arizona was not among them. Even with those accomplishments, the national total remains below the 10-year average.
Scopa believes the strain on the system is already being felt.
“Besides the actual reduction in personnel, I think you've just put so much stress into the system that that itself is going to reduce the number of the amount of work that can get done,” she said.
The data has drawn scrutiny from Arizona lawmakers.
“If we're not doing the proper forest thinning in the Southwest, we're going to have massive forest fires that's going to potentially be deadly to our communities,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego.
Gallego, along with Sen. Mark Kelly is seeking answers from the Forest Service, including how many firefighters remain employed, what is being done to fill vacancies, and how the agency plans to make up missed work.
“This is why we have to hold them accountable and make sure that they are proving what they're saying, because that's not what we're seeing on the ground, especially from the view of experts,” Gallego said.
Experts say the stakes are especially high for communities built in fire-prone areas.
“Our forests here in Arizona are naturally fire adapted, and fire is something that we're going to be experiencing here in perpetuity, so just learning how to live with it is one of the key things that we work toward, and are working toward that a lot here in northern Arizona,” Colavito said.
The Forest Service has been given until December 12 to respond to the senators’ questions. ABC15 has reached out to the agency for comment and has not yet received a response.
