r/Wildfire • u/Flat-Suggestion-8373 • Jun 01 '25
News (General) Additional FY26 Trump Budget Request Details - Forest Service
Details pulled from 2026 USDA Budget Summary: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2026-usda-budget-summary.pdf. Will post DOI details separately.
Pasting the WFM excerpt below, which confirms that all WFM program funding will be requested through DOI. Summary table outlines reductions to all FS account (e.g., -100% for Forest and Rangeland Research, -100% for State, Private, and Tribal Forestry, -48% for Capital Improvement and Maintenance, -34% for FS Operations, -30% for National Forest System). Overall, the request would reduce total discretionary approps for FS from $6.2b in FY25 to $2.1b in FY26.
“Wildland Fire Management The 2026 request will transfer the Forest Service Wildland Fire Management appropriations to DOI for the creation of the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service. This new DOI bureau will absorb the Forest Service Wildland Fire Management response program, including over 11,000 firefighters, 3,000 operational fire support personnel and leadership, and nearly 450 business support personnel. In addition, the Joint Fire Science program previously within the Forest and Rangeland Research account will be transferred to DOI to support the U.S. Wildland Fire Service.”
64
u/RogerfuRabit Jun 01 '25 edited Jun 01 '25
Crazy times. Where will we be based? Our same old FS stations? Will they close some stations? Repaint trucks? Is everyone gonna have to take a physical?
17
u/AccurateEnthusiasm65 Jun 01 '25
That’s what I want to know. Are we getting new stations and vehicles ?
12
8
12
u/hartfordsucks Rage Against the (Green) Machine Jun 01 '25
Everyone should already be getting physicals by next year either way.
10
u/RogerfuRabit Jun 01 '25
I feel like they started doing physicals for everyone and then gave up when we overspent by $700m
6
u/SientoQueMerezcoMas Jun 02 '25
We were supposed to start last year, but haven’t heard a word about anything
32
u/ResidentOverhead Jun 01 '25
Observations:
Eliminates State, Private and Tribal Forestry which is wild as fuck. Continues BIL funding at the same level even with the move of fire to DOI. No disaster funds. Capital improvement and maintenance is slashed nearly in half. Barely have enough money to do basic maintenance as is, half to implies fire facilities will go to DOIs new fire bureau?
Wild times, should be an interesting ride.
53
u/Responsible_Bill_513 Jun 01 '25
Welcome to white trucks with blue emblems.
USFS fire is history by December 2025.
16
10
67
u/BatSniper Jun 01 '25
Honestly the forest service will collapse without the income that comes from fire programs. I could see lots of national forest lands either being left unmanaged due to short staffing or sold to the highest bidder.
I don’t think consolidating the wildfire programs is a bad thing, I just think the transition is going to be brutal for us foresters in the public sector that just do a few fire assignments a year.
57
u/manzanita2 Jun 01 '25
sold to the highest bidder
This is the goal
7
u/Logical-Associate729 Jun 02 '25
It's not going to be sold to the highest bidder, but the low bidder that buys a certain amount of Trumpcoin
21
u/Ready-Ad6113 Jun 01 '25
Also depends on what congress funds. They can ultimately say “no” to the reorganization as this is just a proposal and the establishment of a new agency would normally take years to implement. Not to mention the logistics of all equipment, trainings, and personnel that would have to be transitioned.
9
u/NoRice7751 Jun 02 '25
You are absolutely correct. The collapse of “land management” to sell it off is the goal of the admin.
1
u/sjciwmw Jun 03 '25
Even if fire was to stay in the agency, other departments will collapse based on these appropriations alone. They are trying to kill the agency. While timber and range is super important, we can’t run 193 million acres of land with just timber admin.
22
u/bennyccp Jun 01 '25
I wanted to be named US Fire Force or something cool.
12
1
15
u/The_Gordon_Gekko Jun 02 '25
This land will be taken from you and me
2
u/taliawut Jun 03 '25
I seem to recall that this land was your land; this land was my land, but perhaps it's time for new lyrics. I haven't picked up my guitar in a long time, but I feel a Youtube video coming on.
I shall avenge you in song, my brethren. I might have been a structural firefighter in an urban setting, but that urban setting started on the West Coast, and you have been close to my heart ever since.
15
29
u/sporksable Locate Coffee Establish Seat Jun 01 '25
Yall better learn how to QuickTime.
18
u/DodgyFelix Jun 01 '25
It’s neither quick nor timely
7
u/ZonaDesertRat Jun 01 '25
But it has gotten, "better" over the decades. It's still a pain with all the wbs and functional areas, even more so when you have multiple fire codes in a day!
6
u/sporksable Locate Coffee Establish Seat Jun 01 '25
Have you not been introduced to the Gospel of Multifire, my brother in LF2?
5
6
Jun 01 '25
[deleted]
10
u/ZonaDesertRat Jun 01 '25
Cuts, Reductions, and Consolidations Department of the Interior (DOI)
Bureau of Reclamation and the Central Utah Project -609: The Budget provides $1.2 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation and the Central Utah Project.
Operation of the National Park System -900: The Budget would transfer most properties to State-level management. Achieving a $900 million cut to operations would require eliminating funding for roughly 350 park sites, 75 percent of the total.
NPS Historic Preservation Fund -158 The Budget eliminates almost all funding except for projects in partnership with HBCUs.
NPS Construction -73 This reduction complements the Administration’s goals transferring most parks to State and tribal governments.
NPS National Recreation and Preservation -77 Bureau of Indian Affairs Programs that Support Tribal Self-Governance and Tribal Communities -617 The Budget eliminates the Indian Guaranteed Loan program for tribal business development. The Budget also terminates the Indian Land Consolidation Program. In addition, the Budget also reduces funding for programs that directly fund tribal operations such as roads, housing, and social services.
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Public Safety and Justice -107 The Budget cuts the tribal law enforcement program by 20 percent.
Bureau of Indian Education Construction -187 The Budget eliminates funding for construction of tribal schools.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Surveys, Investigations, and Research programs -564 USGS provides science information on natural hazards, ecosystems, water, energy and mineral resources, and mapping of Earth’s features. The Budget eliminates programs that provide grants to universities and crucial climate science initiatives and instead focuses on support for minerals and fossil fuel extraction.
Bureau of Land Management Conservation Programs -198 The Budget proposes deep reductions. The Budget also reduces the Wildlife and Aquatic Habitat Management program.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) State, Tribal, and NGO Conservation Grant Programs -170 The Budget eliminates USFWS grant programs that fund conservation of species managed by States, Tribes, and other nations. Renewable Energy Programs -80 The Budget proposes to eliminate support for renewable energy deployment.
USFWS Ecological Services -37 USFWS’ Ecological Services program and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Protected Resources are jointly responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Budget consolidates these two programs into a single program housed within DOI with significantly reduced funding.
Federal Wildland Fire Service (consolidation of USDA and DOI Wildland Fire Management programs under a unified agency within DOI) -- Federal wildfire risk mitigation and suppression responsibilities currently are split across five agencies in two departments: the U.S. Forest Service in USDA and BIA, Bureau of Land Management, USFWS, and NPS in DOI. The Budget consolidates the Federal wildland fire responsibilities into a single new Federal Wildland Fire Service at DOI, including transferring USDA’s current wildland fire management responsibilities.
5
u/Flat-Suggestion-8373 Jun 01 '25
They should be publishing a budget summary with some new details shortly. Unclear why it didn’t go out with the other departments’ summaries over the last few days. I’ll flag it in this sub once it’s out.
22
u/hack_nasty Jun 01 '25
These shitbags forgetting we need an act of congress to move shit around or what?
20
-32
Jun 01 '25
You don’t know how the executive branch of the government works.
10
u/ZonaDesertRat Jun 01 '25
The Executive lacks the authority to complete this on its own.
This is also just a budget proposal. Congress will have to enact if it is to go forward.
30
u/hack_nasty Jun 01 '25
Congress has the power of the purse
9
u/Numbtwothree Jun 01 '25
This is the Whitehouse budget request which will be taken into consideration by Congress
3
u/hack_nasty Jun 01 '25
Exactly lol
-7
Jun 01 '25
That’s not what you said though. You said “we need an act of congress to move shit around.” The legislative branch doesn’t decide who works for DOI or USDA. They do pass budgets though which won’t be a problem.
8
u/hack_nasty Jun 01 '25
The constitution gives congress the ability to create federal agencies and the control of the funding. So to establish a new agency and fund it, it would have to go through congress
-10
Jun 01 '25
I guess. A new fire agency, I’d imagine, would be pretty easy to add. Just add that into the budget similarly to what they did with space force. If they didn’t want to do that then the executive branch could still work around it by placing all fire resources into existing agencies already within the DOI.
3
u/hack_nasty Jun 01 '25
I would hope that even if they fucked it all up, at least it was done in the right/constitutional way
3
u/Numbtwothree Jun 01 '25
That is true but without the appropriation changes by Congress it can't realistically be done
-2
Jun 01 '25
What difference does it make to congress if they fund fire in two different departments or the same amount of money in just one?
2
u/Boombollie WFM, anger issues Jun 02 '25
The executive branch is supposed to implement laws passed by the legislative.
What are we missing?
19
Jun 01 '25
Ehh, I doubt this will actually be implemented. They shot their wad with Doge and fucked the dog.
Either way 🍿🍿🍿
10
u/Ready-Ad6113 Jun 01 '25
Our only hope now is if Congress rejects the proposal and restructuring. Our fates are in the hands of politicians, god help us all.
6
u/Anonymous_Axolotl25 Jun 02 '25
FS R&D also completely gutted. Which is in line with the removal of research from many other agencies. This quote from a 1926 FS article reminds us all why research is important:
“The mission of forest research is to replace ignorance with knowledge, and in so doing to enable us to develop forest policies and methods of forest management not by the medieval method of philosophical discussion but on the sound basis of established facts and principles. The progress of the forestry movement depends in large measure on the extent to which research received adequate moral and financial support.”
8
u/Resist_2297 Jun 01 '25
Get out as much as possible this season. One assignment under the new org and you may choose for it to be your last …. Especially if you are an AD support staff
16
u/dickwarlockstuntman Ed Pulaski was a Bagger Jun 01 '25
Does that mean taking the Supt rig on that final joy ride?
5
5
u/Smokey_Jumps Jun 01 '25
I wonder what’s going to happen to any Shot crews operating under the FS, seems like BLM crews are safe… for now
7
u/SientoQueMerezcoMas Jun 02 '25
Soon to be greyback shots™️ /s
3
1
u/nolongerafed Jun 18 '25
FS Fire is going to DOI and so is Land, mobile radio. The FS CIO is totally going away, it will go to USDA. To me it seems like they want to abolish the FS/ NRE. Of and telecommunications is going over to USDA at the end of FY25 beginning of FY26
-41
u/BACKCUT-DOWNHILL Jun 01 '25
Long overdue. I have a pride attached to my green truck that I’ll have to swallow but anyone that argues the way we currently do things is better than just having one fed fire monolith is just too attached to the way things are to look at the bigger picture. This is part of recognizing that fires are now large interagency events instead of small district specific problems. There will be some major growing pains for a few years and a lot of pouting piss baby’s that show up whenever any change to there day to day happens but when it comes to maximizing positive outcomes for the tax payer this makes a lot more sense than what we currently do
9
u/oldmole84 Jun 01 '25
the people in charge of the land management strategy should control the fire superstition strategy.
25
u/I_H8_Celery Parasite Type 2 Jun 01 '25
Have fun without a union representing you
-40
u/YOLO_Bundy Jun 01 '25
LOL as if the union represents anything beyond their own interests.
They are parasites.
23
u/BackgroundWallaby302 Jun 01 '25
Another anti union dumb fuck yea no workers representation is better. Let the bosses decide actually let’s just all be contract
1
u/YOLO_Bundy Jun 04 '25
LOL must have some union bros. Keep gobbling them union nuts and see where it gets ya
22
u/hack_nasty Jun 01 '25
The union is literally just your coworkers and like 8 people who work for NFFE National in DC, but….yeah those parasites.
14
u/I_H8_Celery Parasite Type 2 Jun 01 '25
We literally just got a permanent pay raise
0
u/YOLO_Bundy Jun 04 '25
A pay decrease you meant? Literally NOBODY is seeing a pay increase without OT, which was the intent of pay reform: Improve work life balance by reducing OT hours to maintain a decent quality of life, which in turn attracts new employees.
Yes, thst was achieved through the hard work of Grassroots and the forgotten FWFSA. Organizations who spend massive numbers of unpaid hours advocating for us, just to have the union show up right before the bill signing to pump fists and claim victory.
Union parasites who occupy paid federal jobs, yet get to spend paid work time helping their buddies and draining Union expense accounts. Parasites who pick and choose who they will assist.
Look: Unions are dirty. America has a LONG history with Union corruption. If you choose to ignore that and treat our Union like it is impervious to that shit then fine.
But don’t come into a public space and think others are too stupid to see what you refuse to.
5
-20
84
u/chowypow Jabroni Jun 01 '25
Good luck everyone.