The U.S. Forest Service has the capacity to mobilize more than 28,000 wildfire responders and over 22,000 contracted resources across 2,500 vendors for the 2026 fire season — numbers that reflect the scale of the interagency firefighting system that has developed over decades. But as the Pacific Northwest braces for what could be one of its most dangerous fire years in recent memory, voices within and around the firefighting community are raising alarms about whether those numbers tell the full story.

The Scale of the Federal Firefighting System

According to information provided by the U.S. Forest Service, the agency's fire response capacity includes:

  • More than 28,000 wildfire responders available for mobilization
  • Over 22,000 contracted resources from approximately 2,500 vendors
  • Interagency coordination through the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) in Boise, Idaho
  • A national air tanker fleet, helicopter contracts, hotshot crews, and smoke jumper bases across the West

USFS Deputy Chief Sarah Fisher, who oversees Fire and Aviation Management, said in a May statement: "All of our predictive models point to a challenging summer. But we have an incredible workforce and an interagency system built to adapt and meet challenges head-on."

"No Rest" for Firefighters Amid Year-Round Fire

Riva Duncan, president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters and a decades-long USFS veteran who retired in Oregon in 2019, offered a less optimistic view of where the workforce stands heading into the season. What were once regional fire seasons have become continuous national fire years, she said, with hotshot crews and other specialized resources cycling from incident to incident with little downtime.

"There's no rest for hot shots and fire personnel across the country," Duncan said. "They continue to work year-round with fewer resources and poor pay thanks to continued government cuts." She attributed the escalating workload to a combination of climate change, nationwide droughts, and drier baseline conditions that have extended fire activity well beyond traditional summer seasons.

Budget Concerns Cloud the Season

The 2026 fire season is unfolding against a backdrop of significant federal budget uncertainty. The administration's FY2027 budget proposal calls for a 19% reduction from FY2026 enacted funding levels for the Forest Service, structured around a proposed consolidation of wildfire functions into a new standalone agency. Critics in Congress and the fire management community say the restructuring risks disrupting established coordination systems at exactly the wrong time.

In Washington state alone, $49 million in federal wildfire preparedness funding — including $28.6 million in Community Wildfire Defense Grants and $4.4 million in Volunteer Fire Assistance funds — remains bottlenecked due to new grant conditions attached by the USDA. Volunteer fire departments, which staff 84% of Washington's fire departments, are among those most directly impacted by the delays.

National Preparedness Level 2

As of mid-May, NIFC has set the National Preparedness Level at 2 out of 5 — an early-season indicator that fire activity is elevated but national resources have not yet been pushed to their limits. However, with 22 large fires burning across 13 states, nearly 2,000 personnel already committed to active incidents, and above-normal fire potential forecast across the Pacific Northwest, the Great Basin, and Southwest through summer, that preparedness level is expected to rise in the weeks ahead.

For Pacific Northwest residents and communities, the resource picture means that early-season fires — before national demand peaks — may receive faster and more robust response than fires that occur later when resources are stretched thin across multiple regions simultaneously. Fire managers consistently advise that early detection and rapid initial attack are the most cost-effective strategies for preventing small fires from becoming large disasters.

Report Smoke Early

Fire managers across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho are asking the public to report any smoke or suspected fire starts immediately by calling 911. Early detection is the single most important factor in keeping fires small. With fire restrictions now in effect across BLM lands in all three states, public compliance with those restrictions is also a critical line of defense in what promises to be a demanding fire season for firefighters and communities alike.