The US Forest Service on 3 June 2026 warned lawmakers that large swathes of the United States face elevated wildfire risks this year, even as the agency said it was entering the season with its strongest firefighting preparedness in over a decade. Testifying before the Senate Agriculture Committee in Washington, Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said the agency had expanded its workforce, accelerated hazardous fuel reduction, and tightened inter-agency coordination.

Workforce surge ahead of peak season

Schultz told senators the Forest Service had already hired more than 11,000 firefighters — a 6% increase over the same period last year — and was on track to hit a target of 11,300 by July. The agency has also red-carded over 450 additional non-fire staff, expanding surge capacity when major incidents break out.

“As we look into the 2026 fire year, we enter the season facing elevated fire potential across large areas of the country,” Schultz said in his testimony.

Rapid initial attack strategy

The agency, which manages 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands, is leaning on rapid initial attack to keep small fires from escalating. Schultz said that in fiscal year 2025, despite the highest number of wildfire starts on national forest land in nearly a decade, total acres burned were held to roughly half the ten-year average. The initial attack success rate, he added, was the strongest in 12 years.

Fuel reduction and timber output

Beyond suppression, Schultz highlighted active forest management. The Forest Service treated more than 3.3 million acres for hazardous fuels last year and has already treated nearly 2.2 million acres this fiscal year. The agency also exceeded timber targets, selling 2.95 billion board feet in 2025.

“We're on target to increase our timber volume offered off the National Forest by 25 per cent with an overall goal 4 billion board feet by fiscal year 28,” Schultz said.

Reorganisation concerns

Several senators, however, pressed Schultz on whether a proposed restructuring — including moving the headquarters to Salt Lake City and replacing the regional structure with a state-based leadership model — could weaken long-term preparedness. Lawmakers from Minnesota, Michigan, Vermont and California flagged possible closures of research facilities working on wildfire science, forest health and invasive species.

Schultz repeatedly insisted no final decisions had been taken and that research programmes were not on the chopping block. “Our intent is not to reduce the programs. It's to look at facilities,” he said.

Cross-border cooperation

Schultz noted that the United States and Canada have coordinated on wildfire response for more than four decades. Last year, nearly 600 American firefighters and incident management personnel were deployed to assist Canada during its record-breaking fire season, whose smoke drifted across large parts of the US, hitting air quality, travel and public health systems.

With fire potential elevated across the West and parts of the Midwest, the coming weeks will test whether the Forest Service's expanded muscle can hold the burn footprint below the long-term average for a second straight year.