GAO: Forest Service upgrades to wildfire communications and tracking imperiled by Trump’s workforce downsizing

The Trump administration’s early efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce has delayed the development of new systems to better allow federal wildland firefighters to communicate and the U.S. Forest Service to track wildfire-fighting resources in the field, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Conducting operations in remote and often forested areas creates unique challenges: cellular coverage is often limited at best—and towers can be damaged by fires—and satellite phones are both cost-prohibitive and require a clear view of the sky. So wildland firefighters are outfitted with radios, and Forest Service vehicles are monitored via GPS.

While several efforts to upgrade the agency’s communication and tracking tools, which already include portable cellular towers and low-earth orbit satellite systems, were in the development or planning stages, a combination of staffing shortages and budgetary uncertainty have led to delays, pauses or otherwise reducing the scope of these initiatives.

“Agency officials we interviewed told us that the Forest Service’s tools and technology program for fire and aviation management had been responsible for most of the agency’s efforts to improve communications, tracking and mapping capabilities for wildland firefighters and that the program had lost two of its three permanent staff between February and May 2025,” GAO wrote. “The officials said that as of July 2025, the agency had not been able to fill the gaps created by the departure of these two subject matter experts due to a federal hiring freeze . . . Specifically, the officials told us that while they were able to transfer two staff from elsewhere in the agency in June 2025 to work part-time on some high-priority efforts, lost expertise had not been replaced, and they were not able to conduct all of the work previously planned.”

While the U.S. Forest Service said that earlier this month, it had filled two key vacancies within its technology program office, it is unclear how much institutional knowledge was lost along the way, GAO said.

Among the projects reportedly impacted by the agency’s staffing shortages is the Forest Service’s partnership with NASA to develop stratospheric balloons to provide cellular coverage and collect images, where testing is now postposed until at least next year; an agreement to purchase GPS tracking devices for individual firefighters has been delayed by short staffing in the agency’s contracting office; and a plan to improve how the agency maps its firefighters and other resources was put on pause in May.

In its response, the U.S. Forest Service neither agreed nor disagreed with GAO’s recommendation that it develop a new strategic plan to improve wildland firefighter communications, tracking and mapping, but took issue with the report’s title, “Next Steps are Uncertain for Improving Communications for Wildland Firefighters and Tracking Their Locations.”

“We are not in an area of uncertainty any longer and do not feel it accurately represents the current state of our programs,” wrote Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz. “Rather, we are rapidly expanding and improving our resource tracking and field communications efforts. Executive Order 14308 provides specific direction to address outdated technology and systems that hinder wildfire response.”