FiredUp takes a stance on political issues!
We are not just a support organization. Our mission is to make wildland firefighting sustainable for families through both culture and policy change. As a result, we actively take a stance on political issues.
We are a nonpartisan and know that fire families come from across the political spectrum. We are united in our support for policies that priorizie the wellbeing of wildland firefighters, their families, the land they protect, and the communities they serve.
Statement on the consolidation of firefighting operations
FiredUp Partners strongly opposes Sen. Tim Sheehy’s efforts to temporarily consolidate all firefighting operations under the U.S. Wildland Fire Service via executive order.
We are also deeply concerned by the Forest Service decision to immediately consolidate national fire and aviation authorities under the Deputy Chief for Fire and Aviation Management and shift supervision of the agency’s Geographic Area Fire Directors during active fire season
As the families and partners of wildland firefighters, we understand that risk can never be entirely eliminated from this work. We also understand the difference between the job’s inherent dangers and avoidable risks created by administrative decisions. Implementing structural overhauls and shifting lines of command in the middle of active fire season is egregious and dangerous, especially without direct consultation from the firefighters and field-going employees who work the lines.
Our primary objectives center on three critical issues:
1. Mid-Season Disruption Endangers Lives
Mid-season reorganizations do not create clarity and instead inject administrative chaos at the precise moment operational stability is required. Firefighting relies on seamless communication, trust, and well-understood chains of command. Shifting supervisory roles for Geographic Area Fire Directors mid-season introduces unnecessary risk. Operational focus should be entirely on firefighter safety and community protection.
2. Repeating Reorganization Pitfalls
We are already witnessing the fallout from ongoing Department of the Interior (DOI) reorganization and restructuring efforts. Rather than learn from missteps, Senator Sheehy’s proposal echoes the same disconnect from logic. Mid-season structural change about field level implementation, interagency coordination, or operational consequences leaves employees exposed to unnecessary risk by creating confusion.
3. Disregard for the Boots on the Ground
True operational efficiency is not created through press releases originating from Washington offices. Rather, it is built by listening to the firefighters who risk their lives every season. To issue top-down directives without meaningful engagement with boots-on-the-ground demonstrates a troubling lack of consideration for the workforce. Our firefighters are in the middle of the worst fire season in recorded history. Their agencies are under funded, under staffed, and missing key operational expertise due to retention challenges. Continually introducing administrative disruption only worsens workforce fatigue and morale.
In the current wildland firefighting landscape, the Senator’s proposed mid-season changes decrease operational readiness and increase the risks that our loved ones will be injured or killed in the line of duty. There is no clear evidence that they will offer any improvements. Furthermore, there can never be justification for using an active fire season as the testing ground for changes affecting leadership, resource movement, contracts, funding, and interagency coordination.
Forest Service leadership and this administration must immediately pause top-down administrative shifts during critical operational periods. Any further consolidation must proceed deliberately, transparently, and with meaningful workforce consultation and congressional oversight. Those proposing these changes must demonstrate that they will improve, not simply reorganize, wildland fire operations without compromising firefighter safety.
This year has already shown, in the starkest possible terms, how dangerous this job can be. Too many wildland firefighter families are already paying the grim price. The administration must not create additional opportunities for another family to receive that call.
If the administration continues to pursue sweeping changes without that evidence or those safeguards, Congress must step in and halt those actions.
Statement on the US Forest Service Reorganization
FiredUp Partners strongly opposes the U.S. Forest Service reorganization.
We have been consistent advocates for agency reform in order to ensure the wellbeing of fire families and the longevity of the agency. However, this reorganization offers no meaningful change while sowing chaos and putting critical elements of the agency’s mission at risk.
FiredUp Partners recognizes this for what it is: an attempt to dismantle public lands and a direct threat to our families and communities. We call on members of Congress to exercise their oversight responsibilities and stop this reorganization before it causes irreversible harm.
Statement on US Wildland Fire Service
Currently, the DOI and USDA are making structural changes to our nation’s wildland firefighting resources.
Modernizing fire response is a necessary and important step as fire season changes and the nation seeks to slow attrition of our most qualified firefighters. However, we are unconvinced that a single firefighting agency, divorced from land management practices, is the best way to accomplish this. We urge leaders to take a thoughtful data-supported approach that will ensure the security of communities and the safety of firefighters.
Additionally, we are concerned that current reorganization efforts will not lead to meaningful improvements.
It is past time for agency leaders to have a candid conversation about the structural issues that drive wildland families out of the service. We must confront the fact that our community faces the highest rates of line-of-duty death, divorce, long-term illness, and suicide compared to other first responders, including the military.
No one understands these stressors better than the families who endure them daily. We maintain that including families’ voices in this process is essential. For far too long, this critical perspective has been absent in the national narrative. Although this kind of public service will always require heavy sacrifice, the choice to serve our nation as a wildland firefighter should not be a choice to sacrifice a chance at a family, long-term financial stability, or day to day quality of life.
We are eager to work with agency leaders throughout the restructuring process to deliberately remedy the factors that are shaping these bleak outcomes across our community.
We are ready and willing, with solutions in hand, to help create a path forward to ensure that our sacrifices are met with the dignity that other first responders and other high demand federal public servants already receive.
Contact us at info@fireduppartners.org