Do USA fire service cuts threaten Australia?
It has been a long fire season in Victoria. After major fires in The Grampians/ Gariwerd and the Little Desert, which saw significant demands on career and volunteer firefighters, state government crews are currently battling significant blazes in the Victorian high country. There are 40 vehicles responding to a fire north of the Baw Baw Plateau in one of Melbourne’s main drinking water catchments, and crews are trying to control a fire north east of Licola which is burning within the Alpine national park and threatening significant areas like the famous Lake Tali Karng. Meanwhile, large numbers of volunteer firefighters are trying to contain major fires in the Strathbogie Ranges. And the AFAC Seasonal Bushfire Outlook for Autumn 2025 identifies a sustained period of heightened risk of fire for parts of WA, SA and Victoria.
This summer’s fires highlights the dilemma of how vulnerable we are in bad seasons.
As climate change makes our fire seasons longer and more intense, local agencies increasingly rely on interstate and overseas help to fight fire. For instance, during Australia’s Black Summer of 2019/20, around 1,000 personal arrived from North America to assist in our firefighting efforts.
“With fires becoming more frequent and widespread in both hemispheres due to climate change, we have to expect that this will make it harder to share resources with other jurisdictions” said Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth campaigns co-ordinator. “We currently rely on sharing resources with the northern hemisphere – ground crews, specialists and aircraft. And now more countries in the Northern hemisphere are starting to experience worsening fire conditions where previously they had no regular fire season. This includes the United Kingdom and Japan, where crews have recently been battling the worst wild fire in that country for several decades. The recent catastrophic fires in and around Los Angeles – which happened in the northern winter when firefighters are usually available to assist in the southern hemisphere – demonstrates the reality of fire in the time of the Pyrocene”.
Now the situation could become radically worse. The government of Donald Trump is slashing federal staff including those in firefighting roles.
The cuts implemented so far represent about 10% percent of the U.S. Forest Service workforce of 35,000 and about 5% of the 20,000 National Park Service employees. The White House is targeting positions that perform functions "not mandated by statute or other law," with specific emphasis on dismantling "diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives." While government has tried to assure the public that the Forest Service’s firefighting capabilities will not be impacted, insisting that the downsizing largely spared operational firefighters, the fact is that firefighters require significant logistical support to be able to sustain large ‘campaign’ fires. Overall it is expected that wildland firefighting capacity in the USA will suffer.
Many have speculated that, with fewer federal workers, some of the responsibility for fighting fire in the USA will fall on local state resources, including volunteers. It also raises the question of whether the USA can continue to provide international assistance to places like Australia, as it has done for many years.
Additionally, with the current US president withdrawing from global agreements and taking a more isolationist stance it is not yet clear what the change in policy will mean for sharing resources. This arrangement has been reciprocal for several decades, with Australian teams regularly assisting with firefighting efforts in the northern hemisphere. “Trump’s isolationist approach could be bad news for Australia in difficult fire seasons” said Mr Walker.
Interstate crews have been important this summer – with NSW crews coming to Victoria and others assisting with Tasmania’s fires, and sharing of aerial resources.
“Australia must continue to play a role in assisting other nations when needed. But the isolationist approach of Donald Trump does raise a potential danger for Australia if he continues to cut federal firefighting resources and decides to scale back USA support for overseas fire fighting efforts” said Mr Walker. “Given Trump’s propensity to isolate his country there is a real risk he will scale back or refuse involvement of federal staff and equipment when Australia calls for help.”
Practical things Australia must do to prepare for the possibility that the USA will be a less reliable partner under the leadership of Donald Trump:
- Continue to invest in expanding volunteer firefighting capacity – including innovative ideas that will allow urban based people to get involved in firefighting (details here)
- Continue to invest in state funded firefighting capacity
- Finally establish a national remote area fire fighting team, as was recommended after the destructive 2016 fires in Tasmania (details here)
- Continue to invest in Large Air Tankers (LATs), which are currently largely leased in from North America. At present we need 6 or 7 LATs each summer yet most of these are leased. Leasing will become more difficult as the USA requires more aircraft for longer periods. The Royal Commission inquiry that happened after Black Summer recommended that Australia invest in a ‘modest, Australian-based sovereign’ fleet of LATs and Very Large Air Tankers (VLATs). Details here.
- Continue to invest in early detection and rapid response systems to allow fire services to identify and respond to new start fires quickly.
Further comment
Cam Walker
0419 338 047