As March turned to April a couple of weeks ago, there came word out of Washington that the Trump administration had ordered a reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Requests for comment on what this might mean to the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest office in Gainesville went unanswered until Thursday.
That answer came in the form of a brief statement. “The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest is committed to ensuring that all operations — including wildfire readiness and response — continue without interruption. The Forest Service’s fire readiness and response remain unchanged, and our operational firefighters and aviation resources continue to support wildfire response.”
Coincidentally just this week, USFS personnel were involved in help fight and contain a 60-acre fire on Buzzard Mountain in White County.
As of 4:30 Thursday afternoon, nationwide, there were 42 active wildfires, covering almost 38,000 acres. Three of them were in Georgia in Baker, Tatnall, and Walker counties though others were on or near the state lines with Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina and technically in those states.