Interior Department leaders are weighing a plan that would move thousands of Bureau of Land Management firefighters to a new fire agency, along with an unknown number of other employees overseeing BLM’s rangelands, according to three people with knowledge of the proposal.
The plan is part of a rapid reorganization by the Trump administration of how wildfire is managed on public lands. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Monday issued an order establishing the Wildland Fire Service within the department and announced the hiring of a longtime fire chief who will lead the effort.
The deliberations are a first look at how the new fire agency might look in practice and how its creation could reshape Interior bureaus and workers.
An Interior Department spokesperson declined to comment.
