As Los Angeles grapples with the fallout of the devastating January wildfires, recent actions by the Trump administration are placing other U.S. communities at risk of similar disasters.

The U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service oversee a combined 278 million acres of public land. One of their key responsibilities is managing environmental disasters such as wildfires, but their operations have been halted by a slew of executive orders from President Donald Trump.

In a typical year, units would be spending the spring preparing for wildfire season by hiring seasonal staff, training personnel and coordinating with partners such as state, county and city departments. Workers and contractors would be conducting prescribed burns and forest thinning, both of which are essential practices for reducing wildfire severity and mitigating the effects of extreme weather.

But several projects aimed at preventing wildfires have gone without funding since the Trump administration issued a memo on Jan. 27 ordering a temporary halt to federal financial assistance programs.

Although the freeze was blocked in district court — thanks to a lawsuit filed by APHA and partners — many beneficiaries have not received their promised funds and others are suffering from shortages.

One of those not receiving funds is the Lomakatski Restoration Project, which works on forest and watershed restoration. The project is missing about one-third of funding allocated under a 2021 U.S. infrastructure law. The nonprofit has had to pause several operations and temporarily lay off 15 employees.

The Trump administration also fired an estimated 3,400 U.S. Forest Service and 1,000 National Park Service probationary workers on Feb. 14. The cuts are a “disaster,” said Bill Avey, a former supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service.

“They really kind of went after the low-hanging fruit,” Avey told The Nation's Health. “The mass firings of the Forest Service were the actual people that were the boots on the ground getting the work done.”

The Forest Service firings included mechanics, pilots, operators, logistical experts and finance specialists. Many of the workers also held a "red card," meaning they were qualified as secondary firefighters.

“They lost a big chunk of their firefighting response by doing this,” Avey said.

The nation is already facing a record-breaking fire season months ahead of the hot summer months. More than 7,100 wildfires have been reported this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, which is 37% higher than the 10-year average.

“The most common phrase nowadays is ‘This is the new record-breaking fire season,’ and it seems like we're saying that just about every year,” Mike Dudley, former USFS regional director of fire and aviation, told The Nation's Health.

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense because of drought and high temperatures linked to human-caused climate change. Avey estimated that the cost of fire damage jumped from 10% to 60% of the Forest Service's budget during his 40-year career.

“With more of these mega-fires destroying homes and communities, untold billions will be lost that may have been avoided, prevented and that will be irrecoverable,” Tim Ingalsbee, PhD, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, told The Nation's Health.

The estimated cost of the Los Angeles wildfires is more than $250 billion, according to AccuWeather and JP Morgan. The fires killed 29 people, displaced over 150,000 residents and destroyed over 15,000 structures.

The Los Angeles wildfires were a class leveler, with both high- and low-income families losing their homes and businesses, Ingalsbee said. But high-income people, who typically have better insurance coverage and more savings, can recover quicker.

“They've got the resources to save themselves,” Ingalsbee said.

While the Trump administration has been working to quickly cut costs, disinvestments in wildfire prevention will have costly, long-term impacts, Dudley said.

“People want to see immediate results," he said. "Wildfire prevention is something that works behind the scenes.”

Photo by Harry Garvin, courtesy Los Angeles Fire Department via Flickr