A letter signed by 33 conservation organizations from across the U.S. was submitted to Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) asking the department to focus its funding cuts at the U.S. Forest Service on controversial and unscientific so-called “wildfire fuel reduction” logging.
Specifically, the letter recommends defunding dozens of programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (which oversees the Forest Service) tied to the ineffective and often counterproductive experiment of cutting down forests in the name of “community protection” from wildfire, which would save taxpayers over $1.87 billion.
Signers also ask for the immediate reinstatement of the following Forest Service programs and staff including: firefighting, home hardening, and defensible space; recreation; maintenance and sanitation; wilderness; and genuine ecological restoration.
A vast and growing body of studies from hundreds of scientists (both independent, peer reviewed and from U.S. Forest Service) show that “fuel reduction” or “thinning” in the name of wildfire or “forest health” actually heats up and dries out the forest microclimate, which can make fires start easier and burn more intensely, while opening stands that let winds spread flames quicker to nearby communities, potentially overwhelming firefighters and evacuees.
While billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on “fuel reduction” logging in public forests, only a tiny fraction of funding has gone to home hardening and defensible space pruning 15-60 feet around structures, the only measures—along with patrolling and enforcement of human-caused ignitions—proven to protect communities from wildfire.
Eco-Integrity Alliance 