President Trump is taking aim at forest and wildfire research just as the West is poised to burn
President Trump is targeting federal research funding, including cuts to the U.S. Forest Service, amid concerns about a looming wildfire season in the West. Researchers at the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences rely on federal grants to operate a real‑time smoke mapping lab that informs public health and firefighting decisions. The administration’s proposed reorganization would close many research stations and relocate the Forest Service headquarters, prompting criticism from scientists and agency officials.
- ▪The Trump administration has cancelled or suspended about a quarter of funding for agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
- ▪University of Washington fire ecologist Ernesto Alvarado uses a federally funded smoke‑mapping system that tracks wildfire smoke and particulate levels across the United States.
- ▪A proposed Forest Service reorganization would close 56 of 90 research stations and move the agency’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Utah.
- ▪Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz says the restructuring has been considered by previous administrations since 2006, but it has drawn backlash from the scientific community.
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| Original publisher | NPR Topics: News |
| Canonical URL | https://www.npr.org/2026/06/12/nx-s1-5819899/president-trump-is-taking-aim-at-forest-and-wildfire-research-just-as-the-west-is-poised-to-burn |
| Publication time | Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:01:00 -0400 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-06-12T04:40:57.291Z |
| Last seen | 2026-06-12T04:49:08.751Z |
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National President Trump is taking aim at forest and wildfire research just as the West is poised to burn June 12, 202612:01 AM ET Kirk Siegler Wildfire and smoke maps like this one on the federal government's fire.airnow.gov website were developed in part from research funded by the U.S. Forest Service fire.airnow.gov hide caption toggle caption fire.airnow.gov SEATTLE — Few public universities get more federal research funding than the University of Washington. So as President Trump has already cancelled or suspended about a quarter of all funding for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes for Health, the atmosphere on this leafy Seattle campus is tense.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at NPR Topics: News.
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