Tom Schultz

Tom Schultz, the head of the U.S. Forest Service, is calling for wildfires to be extinguished “as swiftly as possible this season.” But aggressive suppression policies are widely believed to be one of the key culprits in the current wildfire crisis. Decades of aggressive suppression have led to dramatic changes in ecosystems across the West, and allowed for the buildup of trees, shrubs and other wildfire fuel. The Forest Service itself acknowledges that “rigorous fire suppression” has contributed to what it calls a “full-blown wildfire and forest health crisis.” Mark Kreider, a scientist with the Nature Conservancy, is concerned by the agency’s direction this fire season. He was lead author on a 2024 paper that identified another way that suppression leads to more dangerous wildfires.