Early Wildfires Are Surging Across the US—and Trump's New Fire Agency Isn't Ready

It’s not even April, and large wildfires are already erupting across the United States, marking an early start to what experts warn could be one of the worst fire seasons on record. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s new wildfire agency is still coalescing, raising concerns about federal preparedness. Since February, roughly 3,900 federal firefighters have shifted from the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Fish and Wildlife Service to the Wildland Fire Service. This new agency was created by a July 2025 executive order to consolidate federal wildfire response under the Department of the Interior, with a goal of streamlining operations. Some experts doubt the reorganization will achieve that goal—and with a particularly brutal wildfire season on the horizon, the stakes have never been higher. On March 20, the National Interagency Fire Center reported that over 1.4 million U.S. acres had been consumed by wildfire since the start of 2026, more than doubling the 10-year average. As of Thursday afternoon, roughly 150 large fires were active across the U.S., and nearly 200 more were emerging. Many of the most severe blazes were concent