Climate: First 100 Days
The Climate Action Campaign and Sierra Club hosted a news conference to discuss the harm caused by President Trump’s actions during his first 100 days in office. Below are my remarks:
Good morning. Today I want to talk about one topic and two Trump administration actions that put our community at risk. The topic is catastrophic wildland fire and the actions are the termination of the City of Flagstaff’s Environmental Protection Agency grant and the other is reduction of Coconino National Forest staff.
The EPA notified the City of Flagstaff on March 21 that the Flagstaff Regional Resilience Project grant agreement has been terminated. The EPA said that the award no longer meets the program goals or agency priorities. We’ve appealed the decision and the EPA has until November to review.
This action puts Flagstaff and all of northern AZ at risk. A big part of our catastrophic wildland fire preparedness involves helping residents be ready in case of a major fire.
The City of Flagstaff and our partners started to create three local resilience hubs on May 1st, 2024. These hubs are community-centered spaces designed to enhance emergency preparedness, provide cooling and heating relief, and serve as trusted locations for residents to access resources before, during, and after all-hazards events, including wildfire, post-fire flooding, and poor air quality.
Within the first year, the City had successfully spent approximately 40% of total grant funds and each hub has been hosting approximately three workshops a week and distributing emergency response kits.
The termination of this grant resulted in the immediate suspension of funding for four jobs in Flagstaff and the loss of community help for the distribution of emergency response kits. The three pilot resilience hubs, which provided critical services to the community, operated at the Murdoch Community Center, the Market of Dreams, and the Community Assistance Teams (C.A.T.s) of Flagstaff mobile Hub.
Resilience hubs are critical for community health, safety, and emergency preparedness. The importance of our resilience hub community partners can’t be overstated. Community preparedness—especially of those most vulnerable due to age, disability, or income level—requires community trust—something that our partners have spent years cultivating in their neighborhoods and were partnering with us to strengthen, for this effort.
The loss of the remainder of this grant leaves much work undone. We had planned construction to enhance emergency preparedness and resilience, including a backup power system, clean air systems, and cooling upgrades at the Murdoch Center and the installation of a backup power system to support emergency operations during outages at the Market of Dreams.
We’ve lost staff to host community preparedness events, for the creation and distribution of emergency preparedness materials and do-it-yourself clean air filter kits.
Flagstaff is surrounded by the largest ponderosa pine forest in the world, making us ground zero in the fight to maintain federal investment in our forests. The federal firefighters on the Coconino National Forest have been working hard to implement hundreds of acres of impactful prescribed fire this spring—in spite of intense federal uncertainty. The City of Flagstaff has a strong partner in these dedicated public servants and we’re grateful for their partnership and hard work.
The previously fired Coconino National Forest staff had to be rehired, but their ability to have the certainty and funding they need to help protect northern Arizona communities continues to cause us deep concern.
As far as I’ve been able to ascertain, the Coconino National Forest lost 15-20% of staff who took the early retirement or deferred resignation offers. This impacts all forms of land management, including wildfire response, patrol, timber thinning prep, and recreation. Although primary fire staff weren’t fired or eligible for the retirement or resignation packages, wildfire response is still clearly impacted.
Federal uncertainty sends negative signals to all partners who have invested in forest health, watershed protection, and catastrophic wildland fire preparedness.
Our public safety requires continued investment and the certainty that each partner in this effort is going to have the staff and the funding to hold up their end of the bargain.
The reckless and thoughtless actions of the Trump administration have put Flagstaff and all of northern AZ at additional risk of catastrophic wildland fire. Our communities deserve a steadfast president who has our backs and right now it feels like we’re on our own.
