Setting low-grade fires, known as prescribed burns, can help clear out overgrown brush and dead material that fuels more extreme wildfires. In 2025, controlled burning fell by almost half under the Trump administration.

Many of the nation’s overgrown forests are at high risk of burning. Under the Trump administration, work to reduce flammable vegetation fell by more than a million acres compared to previous years.

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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