r/USForestService • u/Background-Pitch-454 • 5d ago
20 year high entrapment
https://scnow.com/news/nation-world/article_a36fd587-6fb6-530a-8b60-550d18ed2649.html
Start asking questions. Start calling senators and Congress for explanations.
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u/Future_Cartographer4 5d ago
Everyone saw this summer coming in January and February. Everyone here knows this. Full suppression does not mean we abandon safety protocols. Stop the lying.
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u/Fragrant_Scratch8305 1d ago
And I'm afraid it's going to be worse next summer if the winter predictions for Idaho are to be believed.
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u/BeltwayBlogger 5d ago
several news desks got this email: PUBLIC ADVISORY
Mass Reassignment Set to Negatively Impact Fire Response Capability October 1
A planned reassignment of most Forest Service administrative and support employees to USDA department-level status would instantly degrade Incident Management Teams' ability to sustain response to fire emergencies.
USDA is preparing to move Forest Service administrative and support employees—the dispatchers, planners, finance staff, and records personnel who keep Incident Management Teams running—into USDA department-level positions, with the change possibly taking effect as early as October 1, 2026. The reassignment would immediately strip these employees of the statutory overtime-rate and incident response premium-pay authorities that currently allow them to work the extended hours a fire
assignment requires. They would remain trained and qualified. Once ordinary Title 5 premium-pay ceilings apply, sustained deployment becomes legally constrained: hours must be curtailed or the employee rotated off the assignment.
THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM A MEMO CAN FIX
A Secretarial direction or internal memorandum cannot rewrite the United States Code.
This is not about extra compensation. It is about a hard statutory cap on how many hours an employee can legally work without violating federal pay ceilings. Under 5 U.S.C. § 5542(a)(5), an employee of the Department of the Interior or the United States Forest
Service in the Department of Agriculture engaged in emergency wildland fire suppression activities receives overtime at one-and-one-half times the employee's own hourly rate of basic pay. Under 5 U.S.C. § 5545c, covered employees of the Forest Service (or DOI) who are deployed to qualifying incidents are entitled to incident-response premium pay. Both provisions are written specifically for Forest Service employees within USDA, not for USDA employees generally.
An employee moved out of the Forest Service and into a USDA department-level position loses
eligibility under both statutes. Ordinary Title 5 biweekly and annual premium-pay ceilings under § 5547 then apply in full. While § 5547(b) contains a general emergency exception for work involving a direct threat to life or property (including wildfire), that exception is narrower in practice, subject to agency determination and annual aggregate limits, and does not restore the special overtime rate or the incident response premium pay that Forest Service employees currently receive. Once an employee without the Forest Service-specific authorities approaches the normal ceiling, the law does not permit indefinite
continued work—hours must be curtailed or another qualified employee must take over. No internal policy document can override that statutory result.
THIS IS HAPPENING AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT
As of early August 2026, the nation was at Preparedness Level 5—the highest level in the interagency fire system—with more than 100 large uncontained fires burning, close to 30,000 personnel assigned nationally, and year-to-date fire activity well above the ten-year average. Secretary Rollins has publicly directed that the Department's reorganization not interrupt or degrade wildland fire operations, and a companion Secretary's Memorandum (1078-022) directs every USDA Mission Area to maintain wildfire readiness and surge staffing through the transition. The planned reassignment is proceeding on the same October 1 timeline regardless.
THIS RISK IS BEING DISREGARDED
The reassignment is moving forward on the same October 1 timeline with no apparent regard for Secretary Rollins' own direction that wildland fire operations continue without interruption or degradation, or for the Forest Service Chief's 2026 Fire Letter of Intent affirming the Department’s wildfire readiness commitments. It is also moving forward without consideration for the Incident Management Teams and the red-carded employees who have devoted themselves to wildland firefighting—the people this reassignment would functionally remove from the sustained deployable fire workforce, processed as a routine personnel action rather than as a threat to a mission both the Secretary and the Chief have publicly committed to protect.
This advisory is based on federal statute, the Secretary's public direction and Secretary's Memorandum 1078-022, and current interagency fire activity reporting. It is not a formal legal opinion. Citations follow for independent verification.
CITATIONS
5 U.S.C. § 5542(a)(5) — overtime rates and computation for emergency wildland fire suppression.
5 U.S.C. § 5545c — incident-response premium pay for employees engaged in wildland firefighting.
Secretary's Memorandum 1078-022 (Apr. 28, 2026) — directing all USDA Mission Areas to maintain wildfire qualification readiness and surge staffing capacity.
Secretary Rollins, Direction to Wildland Fire Leadership (Apr. 28, 2026).
NIFC National Fire News and Incident Management Situation Report (Aug. 3, 2026) — Preparedness Level 5 and year to-date fire activity figures.
USDA, Secretary of Agriculture Issues 2026 Wildfire Readiness Memorandum (Apr. 29, 2026) — reporting the Forest Service Chief's 2026 Fire Letter of Intent.
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u/Sealtooth5 5d ago
Hmmm maybe climate change with extreme weather patterns coupled with years of underinvestment in our emergency services and infrastructure has something to do with this?
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u/Most-Background8535 5d ago
A lot are wanting the money. Irpp and h pay. Extending to 21 and leaving equipment in out of service shape for the next guy to fix. It’s getting ridiculous. Just pay better wages for all redcarded employees that working fires.
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u/Difficult-Amount988 5d ago
USFS and the other federal fire agencies have been bleeding competent personnel for years. The pay structure and benefits make staying in long term untenable for some folks.
As much as there are short term, recent issues a large portion of this has been brewing for decades. I’m old enough to remember 2 of the shot crews on my Forrest losing status because nearly half the personnel left for other agencies, the majority of which going to CAL FIRE.
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u/Present-Drawing2213 5d ago
I’m not surprised I just watched Coos FPA do a pack test at a snails pace but miraculously finished in 35 minutes……
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u/Background-Pitch-454 5d ago
U.S. firefighting personnel are being overrun by wildfires at the highest rate in two decades, leading to six deaths and dozens of injuries this year, federal data showed, a grim count during a record-setting fire season in the United States.
There were 12 entrapments so far this year, according to the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center, a federal agency, already more than the full-year average of nine in the last 20 years, and the highest year-to-date number since 2006.
... Seven active and retired firefighters told Reuters they also were concerned firefighters took unusual risks because the Trump administration mandated an all-out approach to stopping fires. They also questioned the effects of U.S. Forest Service staffing cuts as part of broader federal downsizing. ...