U.S. Forest Service Prescribed-Burn Program Shrinks Under Trump Administration, Raising Wildfire Risks

In fiscal year 2025 the Forest Service reduced vegetation-treatment on roughly 1.5 million fewer acres than in 2024, marking the steepest drop since the agency’s 2022 goal to treat an additional 20 million acres over ten years. Prescribed-burn acreage fell from more than 1.6 million acres in both 2023 and 2024 to about 900 000 acres in 2025. Mechanized fuel-removal likewise declined, with hazardous-fuel work covering 2.6 million acres in 2025 versus over 4 million acres the prior year.

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U.S. forests historically experienced low-intensity fires that cleared underbrush. Indigenous peoples used controlled burns for millennia, a practice largely halted after forced relocations. The 1930s Forest Service policy shifted to total fire suppression, and the buildup of dense fuels has since amplified wildfire severity.

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• Matthew Hurteau – Forest ecologist (University of New Mexico) who led research at the Teakettle Experimental Forest.

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• Tom Schultz – Forest Service chief, testifying before the House in April 2025.

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• Bobbie Scopa – Vice president, Grassroots Wildland Firefighters (non-profit advocacy).

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• Climate & Wildfire Institute – Non-profit partner on prescribed-burn projects.

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• Cal Fire – California state fire agency that provided > $5 million for the Teakettle burn.

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• 5 860 personnel left the agency in the first six months of 2025, a 16 % workforce reduction.

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• The agency hired about 9 700 firefighters by early March 2025, a modest increase that does not replace lost support staff.

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• Funding for the Teakettle prescribed burn came from a $5 million Cal Fire allocation.

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• Prescribed burns in the Southeast dropped primarily because “elevated wildfire activity and excessive fuel loads from Hurricane Helene” limited safe windows, according to agency data.

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The Forest Service attributed the 2025 decline to staff being deployed to active fire suppression and to unfavorable weather conditions in the Southeast. Agency officials also noted that the pause on nationwide prescribed burning after a 2022 escape in New Mexico contributed to the reduced acreage. Schultz highlighted a 2021 case where recent fuel-treatment prevented crown fire spread, using it to argue that prescribed work remains effective when implemented.

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Senate Democrats warned that staffing cuts impair national wildfire preparedness. Hurteau described the loss of the Teakettle prescribed burn as “the whole experimental forest burned in one day,” emphasizing missed mitigation opportunities. Scopa warned that removing non-fire contracting officers “can have unintended outcomes of reducing a tremendous amount of fuel-reduction work.”

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The agency cites Hurricane Helene and active fire suppression as primary causes for the Southeast decline, yet data show prescribed-burn reductions in multiple non-affected states. No independent audit has quantified how much of the acreage loss stems from staffing versus procedural delays in environmental reviews.

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• “The clock is ticking,” says Matthew Hurteau. “We’ve got relatively limited time to do the work that needs to be done.” — Matthew Hurteau, Forest Ecologist

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• “toggle caption Matthew Hurteau "We all knew that this is what the forest needed in order to decrease the chance that a high-severity wildfire rolled through there and killed off all the old-growth pines," Hurteau says.” — Matthew Hurteau

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• “If you remove a contracting officer who is not a fire person, that can have unintended outcomes of reducing a tremendous amount of fuel reduction work because you can't put the contracts out.” — Bobbie Scopa, Vice President, Grassroots Wildland Firefighters

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• “We need more people. We need more firefighters, and we need folks to do the fuels work separately.” — Bobbie Scopa

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• “We do the fuels reduction work not because it's going to stop a fire, but because it allows the firefighters a place to efficiently and effectively and safely fight the fire from,” — Bobbie Scopa

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The Forest Service is proposing to merge its firefighting personnel into a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service, aiming to streamline command structures. Continued hiring of frontline firefighters is planned, but experts stress that restoring dedicated fuel-reduction staff and expediting environmental reviews are essential to break the cycle of shrinking prescribed-burn capacity and escalating wildfire risk.

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