New burn bans and Trump's battle with immigration and DEI are impacting forest fires

A fire fighter conducts a controlled burn in southern Washington. Chiara Eisner/NPR hide caption toggle caption Chiara Eisner/NPR It was a rare windless April day in southern Washington and Adam Lieberg was stuck in front of his computer. He was supposed to be burning acres of twigs and pine needles in the forests between the Columbia River and the Yakama Nation nearby — the sort of controlled burn of ground fuel that is one of the most effective ways to minimize future wildfires. Lieberg, a land manager for the conservation nonprofit Columbia Land Trust, was desperate to do his job. The country was already setting records for high temperatures and widespread drought, which meant wildfire season could be unusually devastating. Lieberg was burning some land, but not as much as he would have liked. That's because he had a money problem. Last August, the U.S. Forest Service promised the Columbia Land Trust a grant of more than $9 million to carry out that work over the next five years. Lieberg had intended to burn 500 acres this spring to protect the surrounding communities and keep the forest healthy. But as of April, Lieberg hadn't received a cent from the federal grant, called the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program . …