Wildland Firefighters Will Face Massive Pay Cuts Unless Congress Intervenes

On November 17, the U.S. Government will shut down, unless congressional Republicans can stop their infighting long enough to pass a new spending bill. That shutdown would cause thousands of wildland firefighters to receive massive pay cuts. Should the government shut down—which is likely—in mid-November, or if Congress is unable to agree on a permanent pay increase for firefighters by that date, it’s expected that one-third to one-half of federal firefighters will fall off a pay cliff, with salaries dropping from a base rate of $60,000 to $40,000 per year, and could be forced to quit, leaving the west dangerously underprepared for future fire seasons.

The latest in congressional dysfunction includes efforts to block military promotions and ambassador appointments, even amid multiple international crises. But the looming government shutdown could also seriously impact the health and safety of Americans here at home while jeopardizing the careers of first responders to some of our worst natural disasters.

“Wildland firefighters endure some of the most significant long-term physical and mental health impacts of any non-military workforce, for some of the lowest pay,” says Stuart Palley, a wildfire photographer and advocate for better firefighter working conditions.

The Biden administration significantly increased federal wildland firefighter pay through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Wages for firefighters are a complex mix of base, overtime, and hazard pay, but all federal wildland firefighters received either a 50 percent, or $20,000 increase in 2021 (whichever amount was less). Now, that funding is set to expire.

That is substantially less than the wages firefighters can earn working for state agencies, or utility companies. Firefighter salaries at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), for instance, start at $52,650.

“The pay does not reflect the risk or physical demands of the work,” concluded a Government Accountability Office report in June.

Federal firefighters are already underpaid. Cutting $20,000 from that amount overnight would be financially devastating. And uncertainty over pay is already impacting retention. At the start of the 2022 wildfire season, federal firefighting staffing was 30 percent below target levels.

In an effort to fix this, a bill titled the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act has been winding its way through Congress for the last two years. Because Republican obstructionism has eliminated the ability to pass individual bills into law, its provisions—permanently guaranteeing current pay levels—will need to be rolled into a larger omnibus annual budget package. The Paycheck Protection Act’s increases were included in the continuing resolution passed in September. But when that expires on November 17, federal firefighters have no guarantee that they won’t see a major pay cut.

Why is this important now, close to the end of a mercifully quiet fire season (at least here in the lower 48)? Aside from the fact that our first responders deserve to support themselves and their families comfortably, a massive exodus of firefighters will risk a loss of institutional knowledge and unit cohesion, while reducing the Forest Service’s ability to conduct controlled burns during the ever-shortening window the winter rainy season makes possible.

And, even if all of those federal wildland firefighters were to find jobs with CalFire or other state, local, and private agencies (which is unlikely), such an exodus would still impair our nation’s ability to fight fires in the future.

“We’re talking about an outright reduction in our country’s ability to tackle wildfires in proportion to the amount of firefighters who will be forced to quit,” says Palley. “We still fight fires with brute human force, so without those humans, firefighting just can’t take place.”

Wildland firefighting is performed by a network of interagency divisions, run cooperatively by a variety of local, state, and federal authorities, including both the U.S. Department of Agriculture (which manages National Forests), and the Department of the Interior (which runs National Parks). At 12,000 total personnel, CalFire is massive, but still unable to fully handle the scale of large California fires on its own. USFS currently employs 11,000 firefighters, while DOI staffs around 5,000. Firefighters are also responsible for maintaining their agency’s equipment and preparedness. NPR reports that, even at current staffing levels, many USFS fire engines lack the maintenance necessary to remain in use.

“There are engines parked that we can’t take to wildfires because we don’t have the amount of people [to maintain them]” one USFS firefighter told NPR.

Record snow in California and other western states last summer has had a dampening effect on fires so far this year. But all that moisture has resulted in a boom in underbrush growth, causing fire fuel loads that are currently above average. The area in California alone that needs fuel reduction through controlled burns is currently larger than the state of Maryland. There’s no way to tackle all of that, but if federal firefighters leave their jobs en masse next month, the burden will become even greater. That extra fuel will make any fires that kick off in the future more severe.

Even while the American West has enjoyed a relatively slow fire year, Canada has suffered the worst wildfires in recorded history, resulting in extremely unhealthy air quality across much of the contiguous United States. More than 2,000 federal wildland firefighters were deployed north of the border to help. Canada often returns the favor during bad fire seasons in the United States. This kind of cooperation is jeopardized by the pay cliff and subsequent staffing crisis.

“Firefighters deserve fair pay,” says Palley. “It’s unconscionable that political incompetence would deny them that.”