New fire division a bold step toward smoke-free summers

From New Jersey to the California coast, wildfires are becoming more common and destructive amid increasing droughts and a warmer climate.

Millions of acres of U.S. forestland are charred each year as communities situated in the flames’ path are reduced to ash and rubble in a matter of hours. Tragic images from Paradise, Maui, and most recently Malibu linger as those communities undertake massive rebuilding efforts.  

Closer to home, hillsides blackened by the Elmo, Boulder and Howe Ridge fires offer constant reminders to Northwest Montana residents of this landscape-changing force.  

Nearly everyone agrees with putting maximum resources toward fighting and preventing wildfires -- it may be the only point of solidarity in this politically divided nation.  

Not surprisingly, this congressional session has seen lawmakers on both sides of the aisle join forces on important legislation that bolsters firefighting resources.  

Most notably, the Trump administration last week boldly moved to streamline firefighting coordination nationwide by creating a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service. This division will operate under the Department of the Interior, which already oversees land managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Parks Service.  

Instead of fire managers from each of these agencies operating within five individual silos, the new federal Wildland Fire Service will reduce bureaucratic redundancy and allow more resources to go toward boots on the ground.  

“We want more firefighters on the front lines and less people trying to make manual decisions on how to allocate resources and personnel,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said about the plan that he endorsed alongside Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. 

According to the Interior’s 2026 budget summary, the department is requesting $6.55 billion to fund the new fire division. Importantly, that total fully supports permanent pay reforms for federal and tribal firefighters, as well as ongoing fuels management work and rehabilitation for burned areas.  

The plan drew strong support from Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, who founded the aerial firefighting company Bridger Aerospace.  

“After LA, the whole nation has realized it’s about time we do a better job protecting our communities,” Sheehy said in a video he posted to the social media platform X on Friday.

Sheehy was at the White House on Thursday, along with Helena Hotshot Superintendent Charlie Palermo and Flathead Forest Assistant Fire Management Officer Justin Kaber, for the signing of the executive order. 

The senator worked alongside Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California on the Fix Our Forests Act that mirrored parts of Trump’s order to streamline wildfire preparedness and response. 

“The status quo isn’t working,” Padilla wrote in an op-ed about that legislation. “Wildfires are getting worse. To protect our communities, we have to reassess how we prevent and mitigate wildfires.”  

He’s right. It’s time for change, and creating this new division is a step in the right direction. 

As with any major overhaul, there will be challenges, particularly with transferring thousands of Forest Service workers to Interior leadership amid a fire season that’s already underway. Care must be taken to ensure this transition occurs without stressing response efforts at a time when they’re needed most.  

Former forest supervisors are also worried that Trump’s order weighs too heavily on suppression efforts, with not enough resources toward fire mitigation.  

But it should be noted that Interior’s 2026 budget proposal for the new fire division allocates $770 million for fuels management and $1.5 billion for preparedness, which is about three times the amount currently budgeted in the Interior’s Wildland Fire Management account.  

Of course, it’s not apples to apples with the USDA’s fire budget. It will be important for Interior leadership to keep an eye on those two lines items and reassess whether it’s a sufficient amount to achieve the new division’s worthwhile goal of creating a nimbler and more cost-effective approach to combating wildfires.