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Trump is taking aim at forest and wildfire research just as the West is poised to burn.Trump takes aim at forest and wildfire research as the West is poised to burn LEILA FADEL, HOST: More big cuts to federal funding for science are coming.President Trump has already canceled or suspended about a quarter of all funding for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.His latest budget proposes eliminating all forest research at the start of the summer fire season.NPR's Kirk Siegler reports.KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Few public universities get more federal research funding than the University of Washington.And so the atmosphere on this leafy Seattle campus is tense, even in lower-profile places once considered safe from White House politics, like the forestry school.Here, U.S.Forest Service funding cuts would have immediate consequences as the West looks poised for an epic summer of fires and smoke.ERNESTO ALVARADO: Do you have time?I can show you the map.SIEGLER: Sure.ALVARADO: Hopefully, you can see the map.SIEGLER: Fire ecologist Ernesto Alvarado is looking at a giant map of the U.S.on a computer.It shows where wildfire smoke is, where it's forecast to drift, as well as the harmful particulates in it.He zooms in on a wildfire burning in New Mexico.ALVARADO: See, if someone is living in Ruidoso, New Mexico, which this fire is close to Ruidoso, they can go and see where the smoke is going to.SIEGLER: Alvarado and Forest Service colleagues at the nearby Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab created this map.It's updated in real time with the help of a team of grad students and IT staff here at UW.ALVARADO: We need to bring new technology fast.SIEGLER: This taxpayer-funded tech is now widely used by governments, elite firefighting teams and popular apps that people rely on when the smoke gets bad.It's the product, Alvarado says, of institutional knowledge developed through forest service research into smoke and fires.ALVARADO: You are integrating the knowledge and the science available for decades by one team...SIEGLER: Yeah.ALVARADO: ...In Seattle.SIEGLER: But the Seattle smoke lab is now on a list of 56 out of 90 research stations identified for closure.It's part of the Trump administration's controversial Forest Service reorganization, including the relocation of its headquarters from D.C.Morgan Varner is worried.He was a fire behavior scientist at the Seattle lab until 2019.MORGAN VARNER: There's a haphazard to it that I think is troubling from a scientist's standpoint.SIEGLER: Current lab employees did not respond to interview requests, but Varner doubts most of the staff here will be willing to relocate.The lab was put in Seattle due to its international airport and major research university.VARNER: Seattle is a technology hub, and so the Forest Service lab, people may think that they're sort of backwoods out measuring some trees, but this is a lab that is working with the brightest minds based in Seattle.TOM SCHULTZ: OK.So I need you to help me change the narrative.We aren't closing research.SIEGLER: Twenty-seven hundred miles to the east, U.S.Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz is sitting in the agency's soon-to-be former headquarters off the National Mall.SCHULTZ: Research is important.Science is extremely important in this organization, and it has been.SIEGLER: But Schultz says the Forest Service has a $3 billion maintenance backlog, and closing or consolidating buildings that house some research stations will save money.SCHULTZ: This administration is trying to be thoughtful as we move forward in terms of we've involved the employees in so much of our discussions.We've got to get our budget under control.We knew we had a big shortfall coming in.SIEGLER: Schultz says science is still a priority, but his boss, President Trump's proposed budget for the Forest Service, zeros out all research and development funding.The chief doesn't seem to think that will actually happen.SCHULTZ: It was zeroed out in the '26 budget and zeroed out in the '27 budget.Congress did something different.We built an organizational structure based on what Congress has funded us to do.If Congress were to adopt the president's budget, then we will pivot accordingly.SIEGLER: If that were to happen, the U.S.Forest Service would be a skeleton of its former self, just as climate change is accelerating the frequency and severity of wildfires in the U.S.(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING) SIEGLER: Back in Washington state, Dave Upthegrove, the elected Public Lands commissioner here, is standing in a popular trailhead near the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.DAVE UPTHEGROVE: The research that's being done at these labs in Washington state helps inform our wildfire response and contributes to improving public safety for people throughout the state of Washington, particularly in rural areas.SIEGLER: Upthegrove, a Democrat, says early on in the Forest Service reorg, his agency was briefed often and assured that critical research would not be affected.UPTHEGROVE: But recently, the Forest Service has gone radio silent, and we've not been able to get updates on the progress, the status and the outcome of this work.So we are nervous.SIEGLER: Nervous as these lush Pacific Northwest woods he's standing in, once thought immune from major fires, could be flammable or at least choked in smoke in a matter of weeks.Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Seattle.Copyright © 2026 NPR.All rights reserved.Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary.Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio.Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication.The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.