Congress must act immediately to restore the strength, safety, and integrity of the U.S. Forest Service before the nation’s wildlands — and the communities surrounding them — pay an irreversible price. While more than a million acres burn across the West, Forest Service leadership continues to sell a fiction of readiness. The truth is stark: thousands of firefighting positions remain vacant, seasoned experts are being forced out or retiring early, and local units are scrambling with unstaffed engines and absent leadership. It is both reckless and indefensible to pretend this hollowed-out force is prepared for what is already a devastating fire season. This crisis is not one of nature alone, but of political neglect and willful misrepresentation. Internal documents and firsthand accounts reveal the damage: nearly 4,500 firefighting jobs unfilled, essential personnel laid off or pushed out, and leadership spinning dangerous PR narratives instead of facing the facts. Congress must fund and fully staff the Forest Service now — not with slogans or bureaucratic reshuffling, but with real investment in people, training, and equipment. We are asking the impossible of our firefighters while they risk their lives daily. We owe them better. We owe our forests, our homes, and our future more than denial.
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