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By Nichola Groom
(Reuters) -The Trump administration has halted funding for federal programs to reduce wildfire risk in western U.S. states and has frozen hiring of seasonal firefighters as part of broad cuts to government spending, according to organizations impacted by the moves.
The reduction in resources for wildfire prevention comes a month after devastating blazes in Los Angeles that are expected to be the costliest in U.S. history, with some expecting losses as high as $35 billion.
The Oregon-based non-profit Lomakatsi Restoration Project said its contracts with the federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to reduce hazardous fuels in Oregon, California and Idaho, have been frozen.
"The funding freeze has impacted more than 30 separate grants and agreements that Lomakatsi has with federal agencies, including pending awards as well as active agreements that are already putting work on the ground," Executive Director Marko Bey said in a letter to U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat.
In an interview, Bey said his organization was forced to lay off 15 people and issue stop work orders on many active projects, impacting other jobs in the region. About 65% of the organization's budget comes from funding allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - laws enacted under former U.S. President Joe Biden.
"It doesn't matter what your political perspective is, we all agree we have to reduce fire hazards," Bey said. "But right now, with the funding freeze, we can't operate programs because of the uncertainty of when we are going to get paid."
The American Loggers Council, a logging industry group, said the funding freeze has also stopped work under the $20 million Hazardous Fuels Transportation Assistance program, which pays for removing dead wood from forests.
"In a period that has so recently demonstrated the catastrophic impacts of wildfires it is all the more evident that hazardous fuels landscape treatment and forest management is urgently needed," Scott Dane, executive director of the American Loggers Council, said in a letter.
He called on the administration to exempt forest management programs from the broad suspension in federal funding.
A spokesperson for the Agriculture department, which oversees the Forest Service, said all programs and personnel were under review.
"The Department of Agriculture will be happy to provide a response to interested parties once Secretary Brooke Rollins has the opportunity to analyze these reviews,” the spokesperson said.
The agency also said it was working with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on its wildland firefighting positions, which it said are public safety jobs.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department, the parent agency of the BLM and National Parks Service, said it was reviewing funding decisions.
"The Department of the Interior continues to review funding decisions to be consistent with the president’s executive orders," the spokesperson said. "The Department’s ongoing review of funding complies with all applicable laws, rules, regulations and orders."
Senate Democrats have called on the administration to unlock fire mitigation funding, and separately have asked Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture leadership to exempt seasonal firefighters from a broad federal hiring freeze.
U.S. agencies hire about 15,000 seasonal firefighters each year, according to the office of Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat.
Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an advocacy group for federal firefighters, said its members have been unable to hire the hundreds of firefighters that are typically brought on this time of year to gear up for the summer fire season.
"The agencies already have had a recruitment and retention problem," Riva Duncan, vice president of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said in an interview. "This just exacerbates that problem."
Dry conditions and a buildup of fuel on lands throughout the West have prompted more frequent and intense fires in recent years.
U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly has blamed poor forest management for catastrophic wildfires, including during a recent visit to the burn area in Los Angeles.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; editing by Diane Craft and Chris Reese)
