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Home My WebLink About111925 - Please Sign-On Western Local Elected Official Letter to State AGs on Fire MitigationALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. Hi all, In response to the rapid decline in wildfire preparedness at our nation’s public land agencies, please consider signing onto this letter to Western state attorneys general to ask for help in defending our communities from the impacts of cuts <https://forms.gle/kT8aKecEVkeuh2hZ8> to federal public land management agencies <https://forms.gle/kT8aKecEVkeuh2hZ8> and hazardous fuels reduction efforts <https://forms.gle/kT8aKecEVkeuh2hZ8> . The full letter is pasted below. Please sign on here <https://forms.gle/kT8aKecEVkeuh2hZ8> or email Anna - "Sign Me On" by early December (we may extend this deadline). Who has already signed on: * County Supervisor Patrice Horstman, Coconino County, Arizona * Mayor Becky Daggett, City of Flagstaff, Arizona * District 3 Supervisor and Vice Chair Jennifer Allen, Pima County, Arizona * Council Member Stephen Gerard, Town of Breckenridge, Colorado * County Commissioner Jodie Hartman-Ball, Clear Creek County, Colorado * Council Member Jessika Loyer, City of Durango, Colorado * County Commissioner Jeanne McQueeney, Eagle County, Colorado * County Commissioner Matt Scherr, Eagle County, Colorado * Mayor Rick Ihnken, Town of Frisco, Colorado * Council Member Don Cameron, City of Golden, Colorado * County Commissioner John Kefalas, Larimer County, Colorado * Mayor Pro-Tem Joan May, Town of Ophir, Colorado * County Commissioner Michelle Nauer Ouray County, Colorado * Mayor John I. Clark, Town of Ridgway, Colorado * County Commissioner Lance Waring, San Miguel County, Colorado * County Commissioner, District 1 Anne Brown, San Miguel County, Colorado * County Commissioner Nina Waters, Summit County, Colorado * Councilmember & Marshall Fire Survivor Jenn Kaaoush, Town of Superior, Colorado * Mayor Pro Tem J. Meehan Fee, Town of Telluride, Colorado * Former Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member Todd Brown, Town of Telluride, Colorado * County Commissioner Muffy Davis, Blaine County, Idaho * County Commissioner Chair Angenie McCleary, Blaine County, Idaho * President, City Council Kaz Thea, City of Hailey, Idaho * Council Member Tripp Hutchinson, City of Ketchum, Idaho * Majority Whip Howard Watts III, Assemblymember, District 15, Nevada * Council Member Tammy Fiebelkorn, City of Albuquerque, New Mexico * Former Mayor Pro Tem and Supervisor DASWCD Gill Sorg, City of Las Cruces, New Mexico * Mayor Alan Webber, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico * County Commissioner Jacques Hadler, Grand County Utah * Mayor Pam Leach Town of Rockville, Utah * Council Member Craig Reynolds, Mercer Island, Washington Thank you! Anna Please send me your personal emails if you have been termed out but want to stay involved. LETTER TEXT (sign here via google forms <https://mail.google.com/> ) December 2025 RE: Wildfire Funding in the West Dear Western State Attorneys General, As local elected officials, our foremost responsibility is to help protect the safety of our communities. In the communities we represent in the West, wildfires are one of the foremost risks we face. Our communities are located near significant federal public lands — including U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the National Park Service (NPS) lands — and we count on these agencies to be able to capably and responsibly manage and respond to wildfire risks. That’s why we are writing to you today: to express our urgent concern about the rapid decline of federal wildfire preparedness in recent months, and to ask for your help in defending our communities from the impacts of reckless and potentially illegal <https://www.npr.org/2025/09/25/nx-s1-5544317/federal-probationary-employees-firing-supreme-court> cuts <https://www.propublica. org/article/forest-service-staff-fire-season> to federal public land management agencies <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/546d52b2e4b079301f4abb7f/t/67b283fc0f6cd23825376cc4/1739752445687/Rel ease+The+Mountain+Pact+Terrified+By+Trump+Administration%E2%80%99s+Purge+of+America%E2%80%99s+Public+Land+Agency+Staff+2.14.25.pdf> and hazardous fuels reduction efforts. Since the beginning of the year, we have seen substantial reductions in staffing at federal public land management agencies. Layoffs, voluntary deferred resignations, and early retirements of land management professionals at USFS, NPS, and BLM have severely hampered the federal wildland firefighting force. With these staff reductions, there are many fewer experienced “red card” holders who are able to deploy to manage the most dangerous wildfires. Federal agencies this year were also impeded in their hiring of the thousands of seasonal firefighters who normally join their ranks during the months when wildfires are most active. According to internal national data obtained by ProPublica <https://www.propublica.org/article/forest-service-staff-fire-season> “more than 4,500 Forest Service firefighting jobs — as many as 27% — remained vacant as of July 17, 2025” during the heart of wildfire season in the West. NPS and BLM reportedly <https://stateline.org/2025/02/18/trumps-cuts-to-federal-wildfire-crews- could-have-scary-consequences/> faced similar constraints on hiring seasonal firefighters this year. Deep staffing cuts are also reducing the capacity of federal land management agencies to plan and execute hazardous fuels reduction projects that lower the risks catastrophic fires pose to our communities. According to an analysis of USFS data <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/682782f2a74ed97f7aa5152e/t/6903d8e5e156c029545a838e/1761859813133/GWF+Memo+on+Declines+in+Wildfire+P reparedness+Oct+2025.pdf> , hazardous fuels reduction work across US Forest Service lands, including mechanical thinning and prescribed fire, is down 38% as of October 1, 2025, compared with the same period over the previous four years. These cuts and reductions are impacting Western states in many ways: * In Arizona, where one of the largest wildfires in in the state’s history tore through the Kaibab National Forest and North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park this summer, <https://www.nytimes.co m/2025/08/05/weather/dragon-bravo-wildfire-grand-canyon.html> the Forest Service has removed hazardous fuels from barely half (56%) as many acres of national forest land as it has averaged in each of the previous four years. * In California, the Forest Service has treated just 107,840 acres, or 34% of the four-year average full-year hazardous fuels reduction total. * In Colorado, <https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/lee-fire-top-5-largest-wildfires-in-colorado-history/> the Forest Service has removed hazardous fuels from 72% of its four-year average full-year hazardous fuels reduction total. * In Idaho, where the Forest Service has treated, on average, 316,660 acres of national forestland each of the previous four years, the Forest Service has removed hazardous fuels from a mere 65,000 acres – just 21 percent of that four-year average. * In Montana, <https://app.powerbigov.us/view?r=eyJrIjoiNWQ1NjI3ZjktMzYwMi00YjFmLWIwZGQtNDM3N2M3OGZkYWJhIiwidCI6IjVmYzM1Mjk4LTQyMTEtNDA1NC04Njc4LWIzMjgxYzM5NzI2NyJ9> the Forest Service is barely a fourth of the way (28%) to reaching the average full-year hazardous fuels reduction total from the previous four years. * In Nevada, <https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2025/10/08/blm-warns-about-potential-for-fall-fires-in-nevada/86585529007/> the Forest Service is barely a third (38%) of its way to removing hazardous fuels from as many acres of national forestland as it has averaged over the previous four years. * In New Mexico, <https://www.weather.gov/abq/climonhigh2020annual-firewx#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20acres%20burned%20in%202020%20was%20140%2C450%2C%20below%20to%20well%20below%20the%2020%2Dyear%20a verage%20of%20291%2C046%20acres.> the Forest Service has treated just 68,000 acres of national forestland – barely half (53%) of the average amount treated each of the previous four years. * In Oregon, the Forest Service treated an average of 364,000 acres annually between 2021 and 2024. As of the end of September 2025, it had completed hazardous fuels treatments on only 118,000 acres — about 32% of the recent four-year average. Adding to the staffing challenges facing federal land management agencies, the federal government is now reportedly preparing for a massive, government-wide reorganization <https://www.cpr.org/2025/0 9/16/new-wildland-fire-service/> of firefighting operations. While some of the goals of this reorganization are laudable — including increasing firefighter pay, modernizing computer systems, streamlining how agencies contract for equipment, and facilitating more prescribed burns — the uncertainty will create an atmosphere of confusion and could lead to worse outcomes, especially in the short term. Wildfire preparedness is a matter of life and death in rural Western communities. The danger posed by wildfires to homes, businesses, and livelihoods is ever-present. The impacts of climate change, from increased drought to hotter and more unpredictable weather, are only heightening these risks. We need the federal government to be able to manage and confront wildfire risks on the lands it manages near our communities. Public land agencies must have the resources and staffing necessary to conduct robust, year-round wildfire preparedness work, including pre-fire mitigation activities, fire suppression, and post-fire recovery and resilience-building. We respectfully ask that you review the legality of the actions that have resulted in the erosion of federal wildlife preparedness and, as appropriate, take steps to hold the federal government accountable for fulfilling its responsibilities for protecting life and property. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. Sincerely, WILL LIST NAMES HERE -- <https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4wphnW9A9GjVrEYDHMZd8kVbHTdzkNDtkJYylMulhmU6NUIMflef3Ow7tps-fTuPh39vmPmJWUqMywW> ANNA PETERSON Executive Director | The Mountain Pact Durango, Colorado | (612) 735-2402 | anna@themountainpact.org <mailto:anna@themountainpact.org> Subscribe to get our policy alerts <http://www.themountainpact.org/subscribe> Founded in 2014, The Mountain Pact <https://themountainpact.org> educates, empowers, and mobilizes local elected officials in over 100 Western mountain communities with outdoor recreation based economies to speak with a collective voice on federal climate, public lands, and outdoor recreation policy. \u002B00:00"},{"url":"https://themountainpact.org","url/urlTextSpan":{"beginIndex":31844,"length":17},"@EntityId":"06b3f279-eeff-49e7-8f5a-1480835e0882","@extractionTimeUtc":"2025-11-20T01:21:07.5782 157\u002B00:00"}]