Wildland firefighters face pay cut of up to 50%

LOVELL — If a temporary pay adjustment expires on December 20 of this year with the adjournment of the 118th Congress, 15,000 federal wildland firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service  and Department of the Interior  face pay cuts of up to 50% of their base pay.

Wildland firefighting is known as a notoriously difficult and dangerous job with long hours in treacherous terrain for relatively little pay.

A 2022 report by the Government Accountability Office found that the primary barrier to recruitment and retention of WFFs was low pay, with most entry-level roles starting at just $15 per hour, with little room for long-term advancement listed as a second leading cause of low retention.

In 2022, both the USFS and DOI worked with the Office of Personnel Management to address a provision of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which called for agencies to increase firefighter pay by the lesser of $20,000 or 50% of the base salary in areas with low WFF retention.

In June 2022, the agencies announced that the salary increase would apply to all WFFs, regardless of geographic location, because data showed such challenges existed nationwide.

The act authorized those increases through the 2026 fiscal year, but as the transition period begins, advocacy groups are scrambling to secure federal support for longer-term funding and protections to guarantee greater retention and additional benefits.

The Wildland Firefighters Paycheck Protection Act, which was introduced to the Senate in 2023 by Senators Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), would guarantee not only the pay adjustments set forth in 2022 but create a new pay table, a new “Incident Response Premium Pay,” or 450% of base pay rate daily after 36 hours for all employees engaged in wildland firefighting.  It would also introduce Rest and Recuperation Pay for a period after a wildfire incident.

“For years, wildland firefighters have been asked to do too much for too little,” Barrasso said in a statement at the time of the bill’s introduction. “These brave heroes must be compensated for

risking their lives to protect forests across the West. Our bipartisan Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act is a major step toward ensuring wildland firefighters are treated fairly.”`

The GAO estimates some 18,700 people are employed by the USFS and DOI as wildland firefighters and support staff.

Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, a non-profit, is one group arguing that Sinema’s bill — or a continuing resolution benefiting WFFs — must be passed during the current Congressional session for the overall well-being of the nation’s WFFs.

Jonathan Golden, the group’s legislative director, spoke at Grassroot’s recent stakeholders’ meeting, expressing some frustration with the current Congress for its reticence to pass legislation that would benefit the firefighters.

He noted, however, that some signs for hope were present and pointed to ongoing negotiations over the National Defense Authorization Act for 2025. A supplementary piece of legislation, or rider, may be attached to the main bill, he explained, which would act as the necessary continuing resolution for WFFs current pay adjustments.

“We have built some consensus around (the idea) that something needs to get done and that consensus is starting to build slowly with the waiting hours of this Congress, but no one is quite sure yet of what will be done,” Golden said. “The fact of the matter is that the next continuing resolution that does get passed by the end of the year — hopefully with that supplement attached to it – could last us all the way into March of 2025, and that’s a long time.”

Without funding or potential for reprieve or advancement, the need for WFFs may eventually outstrip those available to respond to the extant threat posed by a shifting climate and increasingly volatile weather patterns.

Lightning strikes are rising alongside global temperatures and igniting more fires like the Pack Trail and Elk Fires that hit Wyoming this past season.

Following a lightning strike on Sept. 27, the Elk Fire in the Bighorn National Forest consumed 91,905 acres. At its peak, 944 WFFs were contracted to its containment and suppression.

In Teton County, where the Pack Trail Fire burned more than 89,000 acres, 551 WFFs were deployed for its containment and suppression.

This story was published on December 5, 2024.