The Forest Service is withholding tens of millions of dollars in wildfire and forestry assistance from states that haven’t signed onto Trump administration directives prohibiting diversity initiatives and climate change programs.
As weather forecasters predict an especially severe wildfire season, the Forest Service is in talks with Western states about the holdup on the wildfire mitigation grants and cooperative agreements on forest management, according to state and federal officials.
Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz addressed the subject at a Senate committee hearing last week, after Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) complained that her home state can’t make use of about $49 million promised by the federal government, including for community wildfire defense grants, because it’s blocked by the disagreement over the terms and conditions laid out by the Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service.
The new requirements are a particular problem with Democratic-led states, which won’t sign onto the new requirements, in some cases because state laws conflict with the restrictions like the ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. But forestry leaders in Idaho have also raised concerns, saying requirements to make sure subcontractors are also following the Trump directives put an undue burden on states.
