Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Forest Service firefighters are struggling amid staffing cuts
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Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Ochoco National Forest Hash Rock Fire, 2017; Source: USFS/Flickr ([link removed])
Earlier this year, the Trump administration fired thousands ([link removed]) of Forest Service employees and offered deferred-resignation packages to others. As a result, many federal wildland firefighters have been reassigned ([link removed]) to duties that have nothing to do with fire—such as cleaning restrooms and mowing ranger station lawns—reducing the agency’s firefighting capacity and negatively affecting firefighter morale.
Despite official statements suggesting that staffing goals have been met, ProPublica recently found ([link removed]) at least 4,500, or 27 percent, of firefighting positions remain unfilled.
“It’s definitely not normal. What we’re doing—for instance, building trails—that’s never been something I’ve been asked to do,” Madi Kraus, a union steward and wildland firefighter, told Capital & Main ([link removed]) . “Cleaning out campgrounds and [recreation] areas is not something I had ever previously been asked to do, but have been recently.”
Riva Duncan, a former Forest Service fire chief and current vice president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said she fears ([link removed]) that long work hours without relief, combined with new non-firefighting responsibilities, may put many wildland firefighters in danger.
“This workforce is already dealing with a lot of stressors and distractions,” she said ([link removed]) . “A distracted firefighter is a firefighter that’s not safe.”
Budget bill steals timber funds from rural counties
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act ended public land payments ([link removed]) that rural communities have relied on since 1908—diverting those funds to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. When the U.S. established the National Forest System, it began sharing ([link removed]) 25 percent of revenue from commercial activities, primarily timber, with local governments as compensation for those foregone property taxes. Since 1986, that program has put approximately $25 billion ([link removed]) into county services like schools, roads, and public safety. Now, those funds will go to the federal government, not local communities.
** Quick hits
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Trump admin proposes adding copper, potash to critical minerals list
Reuters ([link removed]) | Bloomberg ([link removed]) | Mining.com ([link removed])
How a ‘good fire’ in the Grand Canyon exploded into a raging inferno
Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
The Colorado River is their ‘lifeblood.’ This Tribe wants to give it legal rights
KUER ([link removed])
With one of the world’s largest trees ablaze, this crew began a daring climb
Washington Post ([link removed])
President Trump dismissed the Endangered Species List as ‘Hotel California.’ But there’s more to the story
Inside Climate News ([link removed])
Editorial: Show some care with NPS budget
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel ([link removed])
U.S. mines are literally throwing away critical minerals
Grist ([link removed])
Trump wants to turn national parks into golf clubs
Daily Beast ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” We continue to wait until species are in dire straits before we protect them under the Endangered Species Act… and in doing that, we are more or less ensuring that it’s going to be very difficult to recover them and get them off the list.”
—David Wilcove ([link removed]) , a professor of ecology, evolutionary biology and public affairs at Princeton University
** Picture This
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@u.s.forestservice ([link removed])
Under a sky full of stars, everything feels a little quieter… a little more magical.
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument is one of several dark sky places neighboring the Coconino National Forest. Arizona’s clear skies offer stunning views of the stars. Stay up late and watch nature’s light show.
(USDA Forest Service photo by Deborah Lee Soltesz.)
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