The Forest Service will pay a North Carolina consulting firm nearly $1.2 million to evaluate the Trump administration’s proposal to hand over wildfire management to the Interior Department — a shift that looks unlikely to happen in this session of Congress.
The agency said it signed a $1.16 million contract with the Research Triangle Institute — which has a background in government work — to study the implications of the wildfire consolidation. The move appeared in the administration’s budget requests for fiscal 2026 and 2027.
The study is targeted for completion by Feb. 15, and lawmakers have made clear they won’t let the plan advance without it, so any big move for wildfire management appears headed to the next Congress and possibly a new Democratic majority in the House, if not the Senate.
“Completing the feasibility study is essential to understanding the key risks, dependencies, constraints and trade-offs associated with consolidating federal wildland fire management,” the Forest Service said in a news release Tuesday.
