As the Pacific Northwest enters what forecasters describe as a potentially catastrophic fire season, conservation groups, tribal nations, and state agencies that rely on federal funding to prepare communities and treat forest fuels are facing a troubling reality: promised grants haven't arrived, and new federal policy conditions are holding up critical work during the narrowing spring window when prescribed burning is still safe and effective.
Community Wildfire Defense Grants Stalled
On the last day of 2025, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins signed a memo changing the terms and conditions for federal partnerships — requiring that recipients adhere to "America First" policy standards related to immigration, diversity hiring, and other criteria that fire preparedness professionals say have little to do with wildfires.
The result has been a freeze on disbursements from the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program, a congressionally-authorized program that funds local groups to conduct prescribed burns, vegetation treatment, and community fire preparedness. Nationwide, 22 states and two Tribes were promised approximately $200 million through the program. As of mid-May, virtually none of that money has been delivered.
In Washington state, the Forest Service has not released close to $20 million to organizations working on prescribed burning and forest health treatments. Among those waiting: the Columbia Land Trust, a conservation nonprofit operating between the Columbia River and the Yakama Nation. The group was promised a $9 million grant last August to burn approximately 500 acres this spring.
"If we don't have both steady streams of state and federal funds for our forest health crisis, then the work doesn't get done," said Adam Lieberg, a land manager with the Columbia Land Trust. "The fires continue to get larger and more catastrophic."
State Forester: Every State Is Affected
George Geissler, Washington's State Forester and the official who helps distribute federal funds to local groups, confirmed the scope of the problem. "Almost every state is in this position," Geissler told NPR. "It does not matter if you're blue or red."
Without funding, the spring burning window — the most effective and lowest-risk time to conduct fuel treatments — is being lost. Once summer heat arrives and conditions dry out, prescribed burning becomes impossible or dangerous. Fuel loads that could have been safely reduced this spring will remain in place when August lightning storms arrive.
Forest Service Workforce and Prescribed Fire Policy Changes
Beyond the grant delays, new directives from the Trump administration have also restricted prescribed burning on public lands. A memo requires that prescribed fires be extinguished past a certain point in the fire season, and Forest Service Chief Schulz called for "a full suppression strategy for every fire" at an April budget hearing.
Fire management professionals have long argued that suppressing every fire — including low-intensity prescribed burns and naturally-ignited fires in appropriate areas — leads to larger fuel accumulation and more catastrophic wildfires over time. Last year, the Forest Service burned only about half the acreage it treated with prescribed fire in both 2024 and 2023, and analysts expect 2026 totals to be even lower under the new directives.
DNR: Critical Capabilities at Risk
Washington's Department of Natural Resources has warned that if federal grants are withheld, the agency would be forced to "shut down critical capabilities to assist rural communities with fire preparedness and response," according to State Forester Geissler's communications with federal partners.
State agencies in Oregon and Idaho are monitoring the situation closely as the fire season accelerates. State-level funding can partially offset federal shortfalls, but officials say it cannot make up the full gap — particularly in rural areas where communities have the least capacity and the highest exposure to wildfire risk.