California Has Invested Billions in Forest Fire Efforts. Newsom Wants the US to Follow

With the worst of wildfire season ahead, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday to direct the federal government to dramatically increase its investment in forest management.

At the Mount Howell lookout tower in Colfax, Newsom spoke to reporters about a model executive order sent to the White House that he said would bring federal firefighting and forest management efforts more in line with California’s. He said the requests come at a pivotal time because of Trump’s cuts to the U.S. Forest Service and what Newsom called the “illegal federalization of California’s National Guard troops,” pulling some of them away from firefighting missions.

“The Trump administration needs to step up, and they need to fund these efforts, not just here in California, but throughout the Western United States,” Newsom said. “Lives and property are on the line.”

While California is doing its part, “the federal government is not meeting this call,” the text of the proposed order said. Over the next year, the state has allotted more than $4 billion for wildfire protection and forest resilience. In comparison, Newsom said the Trump administration has appropriated $7 billion for the entire country’s 238 million acres of federal lands in the fiscal year.

The draft order would make it federal policy for the U.S. to match the capabilities and investments of “the most advanced states and local governments with respect to forest management and firefighting capabilities.” It would direct the Office of Management and Budget to develop spending plans to do so, including the reversal of recent staffing and funding cuts.

All Trump has to do is sign the order, Newsom said.

“I have an open hand as it relates to wanting to work together,” he said.

Patrick Wright, director of the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, said the state and federal government are collectively treating more than 700,000 acres a year to reduce wildfire risk. But he said he is “deeply concerned that recent cutbacks” could jeopardize the work.

“In many parts of California, federal staff are the backbone of our system,” he said. “They know the terrain, they know the community, they know fire risk, they don’t need fancy computer models to tell them where to focus to make those communities safe.”

Increased federal investment is vital because the U.S. government owns 57% of the forestland in California, compared to the 3% the state owns, Newsom said. He added that an early June executive order from Trump on federal wildfire prevention and response does not go far enough to match California’s efforts.

The U.S. Forest Service has lost 10% of all positions, which will likely “impact wildfire response this year,” Newsom said, adding that noncompetitive federal firefighter pay has led to further staffing shortages. California, meanwhile, has nearly doubled Cal Fire’s ranks since Newsom took office in 2019, he said.

That’s possible, Newsom said, because the state has doubled Cal Fire’s annual budget to $3.78 billion in that time and invested more than $4 billion in wildfire prevention and forest resilience. That work includes using AI-powered tools to locate fires, deploying drones to help conduct prescribed burns and monitor wildfires, and creating the “world’s largest civilian firefighting aviation fleet,” adding 16 helicopters and seven retrofitted U.S. Coast Guard air tankers.

The state also established Task Force Rattlesnake, comprising 300 California National Guard members under the direction of Cal Fire, to help fight and prevent fires. However, that unit is operating at 40% of capacity because the Trump administration diverted eight of the 14 teams to the federalization of the National Guard in Los Angeles, Newsom said.

Newsom wants Trump to reassign the units to help Cal Fire as the wildfire season ramps up during the hottest time of the year.

“You’ve got men and women, literally, sitting there in their barracks doing nothing when they could be doing something as important as preparing for wildfire season,” Newsom said.

So far this year, there have already been more than 3,200 wildfires in California. And with much of Northern California under a red flag warning for lightning and fast-moving fires for the Fourth of July weekend, Newsom said it’s imperative that Trump takes swift action.

It’s essential to “keep these fires small,” said Anale Burlew, Cal Fire chief deputy director of operations. “Destructive fires in California affect everyone, whether it’s smoke, evacuation, damage to home or natural resources, or long-term fiscal impacts; we are all connected, and the impacts of wildfire ripple through communities.”