As millions of acres burn across Colorado and the American West, thousands of families flee their homes, entire communities are blanketed in smoke and firefighters continue to risk — and in too many cases lose — their lives, one would expect the federal government to be singularly focused on confronting one of the greatest natural resource crises of our time.
Instead, the Trump administration is reorganizing federal agencies, eliminating experienced public servants and insisting it has wildfire under control.
It doesn’t.
The devastating wildfire season unfolding across the West is not an isolated event or simply another bad fire year. It is the predictable consequence of a warming climate that is producing record-breaking heat, prolonged drought and increasingly volatile fire behavior.
These conditions are no longer the exception. They are becoming the new normal. The question is no longer whether we will have catastrophic wildfire, but whether we have the leadership and institutional capacity to respond.
I spent 34 years with the U.S. Forest Service, including nearly 16 years as forest supervisor of the White River National Forest in Colorado. During that time, I worked under Republican and Democratic administrations. Each administration brought different priorities, and that is entirely appropriate. But never in my career have I witnessed an administration dismantle the very institutions responsible for managing our forests while those forests were facing unprecedented threats.
Today, the nation’s wildland firefighting system has operated at Preparedness Level 5 for weeks. Virtually every available firefighting resource has been committed. Thousands of homes and businesses have been destroyed. Millions of Americans are breathing hazardous smoke.
Communities throughout Colorado and the West are living with uncertainty and loss. Yet rather than strengthening the agencies responsible for responding to these emergencies, the Trump administration has chosen this moment to pursue sweeping reorganizations, staffing reductions and the loss of experienced firefighters, scientists, planners and land managers.
Healthy forests are not managed by organizational charts. They are managed by experienced people.
These professionals build relationships with local communities, understand the landscapes they manage and accumulate decades of knowledge that cannot simply be replaced after they leave. Every experienced employee lost weakens our ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from wildfire.
Equally troubling is the political conversation surrounding this crisis.
While forests burn, Washington has become consumed by assigning blame. Congressional hearings have become opportunities to score political points instead of solving problems.
One side blames environmental regulations. Another blames inadequate forest management. Others blame climate policy. Meanwhile, the fires continue to grow larger, more destructive and more expensive.
The reality is more complex than the political rhetoric suggests.
Active forest management is essential. Hazardous fuels reduction is essential. Community preparedness is essential. Better building standards in fire-prone areas are essential. But none of these efforts alone can overcome the increasingly extreme drought and heat that now define Western fire seasons.
Climate change is no longer a future threat. It is shaping the fire environment we are experiencing today. Pretending otherwise is not leadership — it is denial.
The administration has repeatedly suggested that deregulation, increased timber harvest and agency reorganization are sufficient answers to today’s wildfire crisis. They are not.
Those tools have a role to play, but they cannot substitute for sustained investment in firefighting capacity, scientific expertise, watershed restoration, workforce recruitment and long-term climate resilience. The scale of today’s wildfire challenge demands a comprehensive national strategy rather than piecemeal political solutions.
Even more disturbing is the growing perception that fire recovery assistance is being influenced by politics. Americans who lose their homes to wildfire should never have to wonder whether federal assistance depends on the political leanings of their governor or congressional delegation. Disaster relief should be based on need — not geography or party affiliation. At moments of national tragedy, Americans deserve a government that responds equally to every community.
America’s public lands remain one of our nation’s greatest achievements. They provide clean water, wildlife habitat, recreation, timber, grazing and economic opportunity for thousands of people. Protecting them requires capable institutions, experienced public servants and leaders willing to confront reality rather than political convenience.
The fires burning across the West this year are sending us a clear message. Climate-driven wildfire is no longer an occasional emergency — it is one of America’s defining public safety, economic and natural resource challenges.
History will not judge us by how many agencies we reorganized or how many political arguments we won. It will judge us by whether we had the courage to invest in the people, science and institutions needed to protect our forests, our communities and the firefighters who stand between them.
The West is burning.
It is time for Washington to stop rearranging org charts and start leading.
Scott Fitzwilliams, of New Castle, resigned from the U.S. Forest Service in February 2025 after 34 years with the agency.
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