The Big Blowup and its Lasting Legacy

The Big Blowup and its Lasting Legacy

Following a fire season that started in April and grew worse during a summer of drought conditions, hurricane-force winds battered Idaho, Montana, and Washington on Aug. 20, 1910. The winds breathed new life into small and smoldering fires across the Northern Rockies....
Trump Orders Consolidation of Fire Agencies

Trump Orders Consolidation of Fire Agencies

Citing “the devastation of the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires,” President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14308 on June 12, 2025, mandating the consolidation of federal firefighting under a single agency. Trump’s EO echoes his “Big, Beautiful...
Musk Firings Undermine Wildland Firefighting

Musk Firings Undermine Wildland Firefighting

The extralegal firing of Forest Service employees by Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” will undermine the agency’s firefighting capabilities. Musk’s pseudo-agency claimed that firefighters were exempt from the purge, but as reported by Kylie Mohr in...