The USDA Forest Service's readiness and staffing challenges were debated during a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing yesterday. USDA Undersecretary Mark Rey insisted that the agency is prepared, despite other testimony from firefighter organizations that underscored long-standing morale problems, staffing shortages and insufficient resources. Some 29,000 wildfires have scorched more than 1.5 million acres already this year, primarily in Florida and Texas.
More on this topic plus a quote from Wyoming State Forester Bill Crapser and California State Forester Ruben Grijalva in The New York Times.