HELENA — As Montana moves into wildfire season, the federal government is looking at some possible dramatic changes to how they fight fires.
The U.S. Forest Service has the largest share of responsibility for fighting wildfires on federal land, but they’re just one of five agencies dividing those duties. Now, some leaders are talking seriously about combining all of those responsibilities into one Federal Wildland Fire Service.
(Watch the video to see more about the possible Federal Wildland Fire Service.)
It’s an idea with support from Montana U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy.
“There's so much bureaucratic red tape that slows our ability, not just to respond to the fires, but also to resource our wildland firefighters with the tools they need to do the job,” Sheehy told MTN. “By condensing all of this responsibility into one organization, we're going to provide the necessary support, funding and tools for our brave wildland firefighters when they go out there to protect our communities.”
Sheehy is the lead Republican sponsor, alongside Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California, on a bill calling for a single federal agency to handle wildfire response, preparedness and recovery. The idea also appears in the Trump administration’s budget proposals for 2026.
As of 2022, there were about 18,700 federal firefighters, managers and support staff. More than half of those were in the Forest Service, under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The rest were in four agencies under the U.S. Department of the Interior: the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Each agency manages a separate set of federal lands and has the main responsibility for fighting fires on those lands.
However, Sheehy says there are already structures like the National Interagency Coordination Center that are set up to coordinate between agencies.
“We've already kind of decided that we need to be able to cut through agency barriers, to effectively respond to fast moving wildfires,” he said. “The difference is we just haven't taken the final steps to actually codify that into a dedicated organization that's ready year-round, 24/7/365, to protect our communities, and that's what we're going to do now.”
Luke Mayfield is a former USFS firefighter and president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an organization that advocates for improved pay and benefits for the federal fire workforce. He says his group has supported consolidation since their founding in 2019.
“It has the potential, or the opportunity, to create a modernized system that can hopefully be fluid, flexible and foundationally built to last across administrations and not just for this current administration,” he said.
Sheehy’s bill and the Trump budget proposal have called for the national fire agency to be under the Interior Department. GRWF’s initial proposal suggested placing it under the Department of Homeland Security, but Mayfield said he’s “agnostic” about where it eventually lands.
Mayfield said there are still going to be a lot of details that need to be worked out.
“I've heard one example, that the Department of Interior absorption of the Forest Service fire program is a bit like a minnow trying to swallow a salmon,” he said. “It’s a heck of a move.”
He said the Forest Service has generally handled the vast majority of things like contracting agreements and personnel for the federal fire response.
“Now to put it into the Department of Interior that does roughly 15 to 30%, and they're going to swallow 70% of a Forest Service system – that’s a big lift. I don't think that's something that can't be done, but we will have to take the time to do it right.”
Mayfield said he hopes the final plan will create an agency led by firefighters, able to work more efficiently and with better conditions for firefighters. Going forward, he wants to see a study done to give a better picture of what federal resources are really needed to respond to wildfires.
“Do we have enough? If we don't have enough, then what do we have to do to justify the addition? Or are we just not using the parts and pieces of the fire response system well to where we need to improve process, procedure, etc.,” he said.
Sheehy said he envisions the national agency as having similarities to the military, with active-duty and reserve firefighters.
“The problem is we just don't really pay and compensate them accordingly,” he said. “If we treated our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines the same way we treat our wildland firefighters when it comes to pay, benefits, medical coverage, life insurance, the American people would be up in arms.”
MTN asked Sheehy about what it would mean for the operations of a proposed wildfire service that the Trump administration is attempting to make significant cuts in federal spending.
“Spending a little bit up front will save a tremendous amount of money,” he said. “As you talk about cuts and fiscal responsibility in this new realm, the best thing we can do to save money with regard to fighting wildfires is actually fight the fires sooner, keep them small – and of course reinstate prescribed burns and timber thinning as part of our of our forestry landscape, to ensure that our forests are less susceptible to these fire incidents before they happen.”
Sheehy, who ran the aerial firefighting company Bridger Aerospace before running for Senate, has sponsored a number of other wildfire-related bills in his first months in office. They include one calling for authorities to set a standard goal of responding to fires on federal land within 30 minutes, as well as another – already passed through the Senate – that would allow the U.S. Department of Defense to resell aircraft and parts for firefighting purposes.
Many of the wildfire bills have been bipartisan, and Sheehy says he believes it’s an area where there is room for common ground in a highly polarized Congress.
“I think the important thing to remember is a wildfire doesn't care whether it's a blue house or a red house,” he said. “Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal – these fires affect our communities exactly the same way, whether it's economic impact, or more tragically, whether it's loss of life and limb.”
The Forest Service already reported they had more than 9,000 firefighters onboard by May 3, including more than 900 in the Northern Region, which covers Montana, northern Idaho and parts of the Dakotas. Their goal is to have a total of 11,300 firefighters nationwide by mid-July.
