Across the country, wildland firefighters are staring down what could be one of the most severe fire seasons in recent history.
Among those figuring out how to prepare is the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, a brand new agency created by the Trump administration.
"We're dry and we're expecting the pace to pick up significantly here any time," said the recently appointed head of that service, Brian Fennessy, in an interview with NPR's All Things Considered host Emily Feng.
The agency is a product of an ongoing White House effort to combine all the parts of the federal government that fight fires.
"We're trying to bring on additional aircraft and bring them on early," he said. The agency is also bringing on more fire crews earlier in the year.
Some wildfire experts, like Park Williams at the University of California, Los Angeles, say they want the government to do more preventative work that could stop a major fire instead of narrowly focusing on suppressing those that ignite.
"If we don't want fires to be growing so large that they have catastrophic consequences for people and ecosystems, then the best tool we have at our disposal is large prescribed fires," Williams said.
NPR's Emily Feng spoke with Chief Fennessy to learn how his agency is preparing for the fire season ahead, and because of a new policy the Wildland Fire Service has been instructed to carry out this summer that some say prioritizes putting out fires over trying to prevent them with prescribed burns.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue play button above.
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