This story by Lindsey Toomer appeared on Colorado Newsline on June 9, 2025. We are sharing it in two parts.
Wildfire experts say the best way for Colorado to reduce the destructive power of wildfires is to prepare a proactive response supported by the federal government.
But it’s uncertain whether federal resources will continue to support fire mitigation and resilience projects, and organizations that work on those projects are no longer sure whom to talk to at federal agencies they’ve previously worked with. In a fire-prone state that’s entering the warm months, this has reduced momentum on fire prevention efforts some experts say are essential to protecting Colorado communities.
The Trump administration has upended federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management with staff reductions and reorganizations. And the federal hiring freeze Trump implemented on inauguration day has meant many open positions are left unfilled.
Rebecca Samulski, executive director of Fire Adapted Colorado, a nonprofit that supports wildfire resilience professionals around the state, said the energy around proactive mitigation has “kind of stalled right now,” as organizations determine how to stay afloat without the guarantee of federal support. With all of the moving pieces, prevention experts have again become reactive while trying to “stay sane.”
“I just think it’s really important that the federal government continue to have a role in the proactive wildfire resilience work,” Samulski said. “We know that it’s a lot more cost effective to do the work up front with communities than to wait and to respond to disasters or recover from them.”
Matt McCombs, Colorado State Forest Service director, said that in what is expected to be an average wildfire season — which “is a really bad year in Colorado” — work to improve resiliency and protect communities and watersheds is essential to safeguarding Colorado’s billion dollar recreation and outdoor economy.
The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control’s 2025 Wildfire Preparedness Plan warned that Colorado may have “slightly above-average wildland fire activity” this year, as well as the potential for delayed response times and fewer firefighting resources because of concerns around federal funding. That can jeopardize communities, natural resources and infrastructure in Colorado.
The wildfire season is longer and more intense in Colorado and the West due to the effects of climate change, as well as prolonged drought and a buildup of dry fuels. The three largest wildfires in state history all occurred in 2020, and the most state’s most destructive fire — the 2021 Marshall Fire — leveled entire subdivisions during winter in an urban area once thought relatively safe from wildfires.
Vail Fire Chief Mark Novak said there are three tenets to the nationally recognized “cohesive wildfire management strategy”: resilient landscapes, fire adaptive communities, and a safe and effective response. In Vail — where the town is 4.5 square miles surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of U.S. Forest Service land — collaboration with the federal government is essential to successfully reduce the threat forests can pose in the event of a fire.
“In a community like ours where we’re surrounded by the forests, there’s a lot we can do to protect our community by creating that fire-adapted community and by having a good response, but ultimately we have to have all three pieces of the cohesive strategy and we need to have resilient landscapes,” Novak said. “If that pipeline of the work that needs to be done slows down, it makes us more vulnerable, so that’s very concerning.”
Fire Adapted Colorado and the Colorado Forest Collaboratives Network wrote to Colorado’s members of Congress in April asking them to intervene because of how funding freezes and executive orders are “severely hampering” wildfire preparedness. That includes the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The state’s Fire Prevention and Control was in the process of applying for the resilient communities grant under FEMA to support education and training for local jurisdictions as it looks to roll out its newly developed wildfire resiliency code. Christopher Brunette, chief of the division’s fire and life safety section, said the division is looking for other ways to provide that training without federal funding.
At the end of April, Colorado’s entire Democratic delegation in Congress, as well as Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction, wrote to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and asked her to reinstate Forest Service staff who were trained to respond to wildfire incidents outside of their primary work duties.
“The Forest Service is now entering peak fire season in a compromised position, placing an even greater fire danger on communities across Colorado,” the lawmakers said in their letter.
U.S. House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse of Lafayette and U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, both Democrats, also sponsored legislation that would reinstate all staff at the Forest Service and the National Park Service who were “wrongfully terminated” by the Trump administration.
Novak said he’s heard estimates that 25% of the Forest Service’s resource positions in Colorado, such as those who conduct environmental analysis on projects and verify field work is being done properly, are open and likely won’t be filled.
“People have left them or there’re seasonal positions that won’t be filled, so we’re very concerned about being able to actually implement projects, even projects that already have approval,” Novak said.
A statement from the U.S. Forest Service said that wildland firefighting positions are considered public safety positions, which are therefore exempt from the federal hiring freeze under an April order from Rollins. The forest service “remains operationally ready to support wildfire response efforts” with state and local partners, the statement said.
About 5,000 “non-fire” Forest Service staff have left their positions or are in the process of doing so across the country, the statement said, but it did not provide more information on those positions or what they did.
While many of the “primary fire” positions have been exempt from reduction in force efforts, Novak said many “secondary fire” positions, like biologists who could help as a resource adviser in the event of a fire, have left their roles.
“So if we look at fire suppression as a system, we know that system has less capability than it did just last year,” Novak said.
Vail Fire hires seasonal foresters to help with projects during the warmer months, and Novak said it just hired someone who left a full-time forest service position for a six-month seasonal position.
“I don’t want to speak to their motivations, but I think it’s pretty telling when people are leaving full-time positions to take seasonal positions,” Novak said.
Read Part Two… tomorrow…