A group of U.S. senators say the Forest Service has fallen behind in wildfire prevention work like forest thinning which has been deemed vital to preventing billions of dollars of damage to regions in Arizona surrounded by national forests.
In their letter to the Forest Service chief, the Democratic senators said the agency’s assessment that it’s been ahead in reducing hazardous fuels doesn’t tell the full story because it uses fiscal year data and that includes the latter part of 2024 to make the claim about success this year. The senators say the agency is actually behind by nearly 40% compared to the previous four.
"Through September of calendar year 2025, only 1.7 million acres received hazardous fuels reduction treatment, a decline from the four-year average of 3.6 million acres," they wrote in the letter.
Reduction involves projects like forest thinning which has been broadly used in Coconino National Forest to reduce the severity of wildfires. An NAU report estimates Flagstaff would see nearly $3 billion in loss from a catastrophic fire.
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Brian Fennessy has nearly 50 years of fire experience, which began in the late 1970s on elite federal hotshot crews and other wildfire teams. -
A group of mostly Western U.S. senators is demanding answers on why the U.S. Forest Service has fallen behind on efforts to reduce hazardous wildfire fuels. -
Senate Democrats have asked Senate leadership to fund recovery from wildfires on federal lands. -
The Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act was introduced by Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff and Republican Utah Senator John Curtis. If passed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal officials would have one year to develop a plan to make "commercially available appropriate respiratory personal protective equipment for wildland firefighters and supporting staff in settings in which smoke exposure surpasses covered permissible exposure limits." -
Data analyzed by the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters shows that prescribed fires and other hazardous fuel reduction efforts have fallen by nearly 40% across the West this year.
