Wyoming State Forester Kelly Norris told the Joint Appropriations Committee on Oct. 31 that the state had recorded 1,560 wildfires in 2025 that burned about 209,870 acres, and that about 79% of those fires occurred on state and private lands.

Norris said the 2025 tally was above the 10-year average and that counties took the season seriously: 21 counties adopted some level of fire restrictions in August and September. She reported that the state had 18 fires approved for the Emergency Fire Suppression Account (EFSA) from eight counties and four incidents on state trust lands, and that state forestry had committed approximately $21,000,000 from the EFSA to cover suppression costs for those incidents.

"We have 18 EFSA fires for the 2025 fire season," Norris said. "Approximately $21,000,000 has been obligated to cover the 18 different EFSA fires this year." She added that final cost shares remain under negotiation with counties, local fire districts, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and therefore obligations are currently based on estimates.

Norris told the committee the state closed out its 2024 EFSA cost shares at roughly $37 million in state costs, lower than a $54 million estimate that circulated during the prior season. She said some federal and interstate aviation costs were not billed to Wyoming in every case, contributing to the lower closed-out amount.

The forester and State Forestry leadership credited expanded aviation capacity for improving initial-attack success this season. Since the legislature increased the aviation program, the Wyoming heli-tech program and contract single-engine air tankers operated across the state: State Forestry reported its helicopter program responded to 52 fires and that combined helicopter operations delivered about 219,000 gallons of water. Contracted single-engine air tankers responded to 76 incidents, dropping roughly 189,550 gallons of retardant and an additional 32,000 gallons of water.

"Having these assets allowed us to provide initial attack response across the entire state with a much greater coverage than ever before," said Chris Balbak, who presented aviation deployment data to the committee. He showed examples of multiple-incident days where state aircraft could respond to several simultaneous initial attacks. Balbak also noted 19 requests for aircraft during the season that were recorded as "UTF" (unable to fill) because resources were already committed to other incidents.

County fire officers and airport officials who testified said aviation basing and airport infrastructure were essential to the season's response. Devin Brubaker, airport director for Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport, provided airport sortie totals tied to statewide operations and emphasized the role of airport runways, taxiways and aprons in supporting airtanker and helicopter operations.

Norris also briefed the committee on grant-funded mitigation and prevention efforts: Wyoming received Community Wildfire Defense Grant awards and other federal grant funding for community wildfire protection planning and hazardous-fuels projects in several counties. Over the last decade, the state has treated roughly 10,000 acres and updated 11 community wildfire protection plans using a bit more than $14 million in federal funds.

Federal policy developments were included in the presentation. Norris summarized U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Forest Service secretarial memos implementing the presidential executive order to modernize wildfire response, including plans to consolidate DOI wildland fire programs into a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service, to modernize federal aviation, and to standardize procurement and payment systems. Wyoming officials said they were engaged in discussions so changes do not reduce effectiveness or local dispatch capacity; the state's master cooperative wildland fire agreement is set to expire in 2026 and an extension is being pursued.

Committee members asked for more detail about where UTF orders occurred, the balance of costs versus availability for air assets, and how to measure the return on investment of aviation spending versus ground resources. Norris and aviation staff said some UTFs were geographically scattered, from Yellowstone to Teton National Park, and emphasized that aviation is most effective when paired with available ground resources. Norris also noted that some states' federal aviation costs were not billed to Wyoming in every incident, which affected closed-out totals for 2024.

Why this matters: The EFSA balance and aviation capacity directly affect Wyoming's ability to respond quickly to new wildfires and limit growth into larger, costlier incidents. The committee heard that expanded aviation helped many initial attacks succeed, but that statewide coverage still faces limits when multiple simultaneous incidents occur.