Kevin Cross, Denver Post, August 19th, 2026

Since last year, the Trump Administration has cut 5,800 Forest Service jobs, making it harder to prepare for and respond to this year’s intense wildfire season. While we don’t yet know what the toll will be in lives lost, homes and businesses destroyed, and forests turned into moonscapes, we should be asking elected federal officials and candidates for federal office now what they will do to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Federal job cuts, the rollback of programs addressing the climate crisis, and the continued expansion of the fossil fuel and artificial intelligence industries have all contributed to the devastation from fires we see and read about in the news every day. The people responsible have names like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Russell Vought, Chris Wright, Darren Woods, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman. We try, convict, fine, and imprison arsonists. We need to do the same with these arsonists of our public lands and communities.

Kevin Cross, Fort Collins