trump - fire seasons  how will the trump administration handle the next four upcoming fire seasons in the us? from an objective, raw statistics pov they are more likely to be severe fire seasons than low intensity ones, and given the frequency of big absolute blowout years, it is likely that at least one will be exceptionally bad. the communities in the us most likely to be affected are rural ones, that vote trump. combating wildland fire is expensive. it is manual labor that is grueling enough that full time federal firefighters are forced to retire after twenty years of service, because they are just too physically ineffective to actually man a fireline. usually they come back during retirement as ad's in higher up administrative and planning roles that large incidents require. on top of that firefighters are expensive to train, and the training can't be made optional, as doing something like backfiring operations wrong would just make things worse, and likely just get people killed. you need a constant influx of young physically fit and no-totally-retarded people, and no one will want to do it, if the pay and benefits just aren't there. even convict crews are expensive, especially given that while you can trust 10x felon jamal to dig a cup trench, you can't trust him to handle planning for aerial operations or logistical coordination. so will he up firefighter pay? offer more permanent positions? make it easier for militia (non-primary fire personnel who have firefighting quals) to go on 2-3 week details? fund hiring seasonal labor to do understory brush removal and/or pile burning?
United States