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U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon raised concerns about wildfire staffing as the Trump administration cuts federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service. In Lane County, where nearly 48 percent of the land is federally managed, the impact of the cuts remains uncertain.
Uncertainty and upheaval stemming from the Trump administration’s policies and budget changes are creating dangerous situations for people in Oregon and Washington ahead of this wildfire season, U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Patty Murray warned Thursday during a conference call.
Merkley, who sits on a powerful Senate committee that secures funding for a range of environmental projects, said the Department of the Interior lost 7,600 staff and the U.S. Forest Service lost more than 3,400 nationwide.
Nearly 500 Forest Service jobs have been lost in Region 6, which covers the Pacific Northwest. No figures were available Thursday for national forests in Lane County, including the Willamette and Siuslaw. And it is unclear exactly how many jobs have been reinstated.
More cuts could follow under the president’s proposed budget, Merkley said.
“President Trump is playing with fire, literally,” Merkley told journalists during the call. “Wildfires don’t care about political parties. They don’t care about where we draw the county lines and the state lines.”
Nearly 48 percent of land in Lane County is owned by the U.S. Forest Service, according to the nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics.
Merkley, citing his travel schedule, did not take questions during the Thursday call.
Of the nearly 2 million acres that burned in Oregon last year, less than 2% were state-owned land — yet state taxpayers covered $200 million in firefighting costs through the general fund.
Wednesday, Gov. Tina Kotek and leaders with the Oregon Department of Forestry and the State Fire Marshal said they’re moving forward with wildfire preparations.
Heading into the season, the state is well-stocked and staffed. The forestry department’s fire cache in Salem — one of 24 across Oregon — holds about $5 million worth of supplies and vehicles, including water hoses and engines. Officials also plan to hire around 400 seasonal workers, adding to the nearly 700 permanent staff already in place.
What remains to be seen this summer is whether local resources will be stretched thin if the wildfire season proves as aggressive as anticipated and how the federal government will respond. In February, the Trump administration eliminated 2,000 positions in the Forest Service, saying the layoffs affected only probationary employees, not firefighters.
However, about 75 percent of those laid off held red cards, meaning they were qualified to support firefighting operations on fire lines, according to a National Federation of Federal Employees report cited during Thursday’s call. They were available to help battle wildfires if needed.
The continued lack of transparency around the firings — and the fact they happened at all — is what prompted Democrats Merkley and Murray to sound the alarm. Confusion continues to unfold, they say. If that’s the case now, they warned, what will it look like in the middle of an already chaotic wildfire season?
“You just let a whole bunch of frontline people go,” Murray said. “You can’t just say ‘you’re gone.’ Fire people who are trained, ready, capable of doing these jobs as fire season starts? This was irresponsible.”
