US Fire Suppression Is Fueling Megafires — SkimNews
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- Trump administration returned to a 'full suppression' wildfire policy, reversing three decades of federal strategy that allowed some natural fires to reduce forest fuel loads on the landscape.
- U.S. Forest Service is spending roughly 10 times more on wildfire suppression than it did 30 years ago, driven largely by megafires over 100,000 acres that escape control under extreme weather.
- Federal fire data shows more than 53,000 wildfires and 8 million acres burned so far in 2026 — about 3 million acres above the 10-year average — with nearly 73% of the Intermountain West in severe to exceptional drought.
- National Multi-Agency Coordinating group warned in an August 11 memo that 'resource availability remains critically low, with commitments approaching all-time peak levels.'
- Dan Dallas, a U.S. Forest Service incident commander, piloted a fuel-reduction strategy on the Six Rivers National Forest and Karuk tribal land in August 2023, letting 50,000 acres burn naturally under mild conditions instead of suppressing it.
- U.S. Forest Service futures panel concluded in its 2015 report that 'the existing fire suppression approach will fail across the whole range of plausible future conditions,' warning that fuel-filled landscapes would 'reset catastrophically.'
Why it matters: Federal fire managers say the 98% containment rate masks a doom loop: each small fire put out adds fuel for the next megafire. With the Trump administration's policy reversal cutting off the option to let safe fires reduce fuel naturally, federal firefighting costs and catastrophic-burn acreage will keep escalating under hotter, drier conditions that have already pushed 2026 well above the 10-year average.
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