SEATTLE – Wildland firefighters will keep a four-year-old pay hike under a GOP-led spending bill signed by President Donald Trump, but many worry that mass federal worker firings will leave the nation more vulnerable to wildfires.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday credited Trump with securing the pay increase in a post on the social media site X. He said the administration is grateful to firefighters who he said "embody the American spirit by selflessly risking their lives to protect their neighbors, protect their communities, and preserve our natural heritage.”
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The permanent pay raise comes as Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has cut about 3,400 workers at the U.S. Forest Service, about 1,000 at the National Park Service and another 1,000 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Many of those workers kept trails free of debris, oversaw prescribed burns, thinned forests and were specially trained to work with firefighters. They say staffing cuts threaten public safety, especially in the West, where drier and hotter conditions linked to climate change have increased the intensity of wildfires.
“What I’m hearing from my constituents who actually fight fires in Washington state is that Trump and Elon are making wildland firefighters’ jobs far more difficult and far more dangerous by indiscriminately firing thousands of Forest Service workers and others who support wildland firefighting,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said in an email to The Associated Press. “It’s disingenuous and frankly insulting for this administration to pretend otherwise.”
The federal government has been rehiring some employees under court order after the firings were challenged.
According to the National Federation of Federal Employees, wildland firefighters first began receiving a raise — 50%, or up to $20,000 — temporarily in 2021 as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law signed by then-President Joe Biden. Congress subsequently extended the raise on a short-term basis.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, oversees forest spending as chair of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations subcommittee and worked to make the pay raise permanent.
“A permanent pay fix for our wildland firefighters will strengthen recruitment and retention while providing financial security to the first responders who protect our communities,” Simpson said in a news release.
Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, likewise celebrated the raise, saying the union had been fighting for it for years.
“Now, that fight is paying off," Erwin said in a statement. "A permanent pay fix means we can shift our focus to addressing other critical issues — recruitment and retention, housing, mental health benefits, rest and recuperation, and the overall well-being of our nation’s wildland firefighting workforce.”
He warned that continued efforts by the Trump administration to cut firefighters and their support personnel “will cripple the workforce and make Americans less safe.”
“Congress must not let these harmful plans be carried out,” Erwin said.
Washington State Forester George Geissler, who leads the state's wildland firefighting efforts, has over 30 years of experience with wildfires. He said federal officials don't appreciate the roles those workers play in fighting fires.
“I don’t think there is a desire to reduce the number of firefighters with the Forest Service,” he said Wednesday. “But I do think there is a clear lack of understanding about how the inter-agency wildland fire system is set up, how it works, and how people that don’t have ‘firefighter’ listed as their job are still a massive part of the response system in the country.”
Former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said a reduction in that agency’s workforce will also critically inhibit wildland firefighting.
Spinrad said NOAA and the National Weather Service have about 100 “incident meteorologists,” or I-Mets, who deploy to wildfires to provide support on the scene — such as by letting firefighters know where the winds are coming from and what weather conditions are forecast.
“I know for a fact that some of those I-Mets will not be on the job, so that capability is going to be compromised,” Spinrad said during a recent press conference with several laid-off NOAA workers.
Gregg Bafundo was laid off last month from job as a wilderness ranger and wildland firefighter in Washington’s Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest.
Bafundo is among those who have at least temporarily been called back to work, but his long-term future with the agency is unclear.
“I have always placed myself between the danger and my fellow citizens, and now I feel like I’ve been cast aside like some sort of parasite class or some kind of fraud,” he said during a press conference hosted by Murray last month. “These heartless and gutless firings will lead to the loss of lives and property.”