Doug Burgum says National Park Service botched Grand Canyon wildfire

After the Dragon Bravo wildfire incinerated the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park last summer, destroying the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, the visitor center and more than 100 other buildings, a looming question remained: Could the disaster have been prevented?

At the center of that query was the initial fire management strategy employed by national park officials. And, confusingly, what park leaders communicated about that strategy conflicted with the park's own social media posts. Leaders said the park used a "full suppression" strategy from the beginning. But social media posts reported an initial "confine and contain strategy," which allows a fire to continue burning a defined area.

In a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum weighed in on the discrepancy for the first time, affirming the information shared on the park's social media accounts and undermining the credibility of Grand Canyon's superintendent and park spokesperson.

"Last year at Dragon Bravo, where we ended up losing the North Rim Lodge in the Grand Canyon National Park ... in retrospect, an approach of suppression versus containment might have saved hundreds of millions of dollars of historic properties," Burgum said as part of a response to a question from Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer about wildfire resources in her state.

Burgum used Dragon Bravo as an example of why fire management strategy on Interior Department lands - which include more than 500 million acres run by the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management - must change.

He also championed the creation of the Wildland Fire Service, a controversial overhaul of the Interior Department's wildland fire management resources, and highlighted a new mandate for wildfires being fully suppressed (also controversial, considering how a century of aggressive fire suppression tactics allowed forests to become dense with flammable materials that are now fueling catastrophic wildfires).

"It's going to be a year of suppression, meaning that when a fire begins, we'll put it out," Burgum said. "Sometimes we've had land managers that feel like they've been underfunded in terms of fuel load management, and so they'll let a fire burn, you know, in a national park or in a wildlife refuge. They'll let it burn thinking like, 'Oh, I can manage some of my fuel load.'"

According to Burgum, that was a misstep with the Dragon Bravo wildfire. The problem, however, was not part of a broad failure in fire management policy, as Burgum implies. According to a report from the Arizona Republic, the Park Service's 2025 wildfire management plan called for a full suppression strategy, but the agencies charged with managing the fire repeatedly acted out of step with the plan.

But why? An ongoing investigation into the Dragon Bravo wildfire, which was first demanded by Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, may eventually reveal the answer. But for now, conservationists are pointing at problems that President Donald Trump's administration created when it reduced the staff of the Park Service by nearly 25%, and they're questioning whether brain drain at the agency might have been a factor.

"National Park staff are being asked to do more with less as they are dealing with longer and more dangerous fire seasons," Priya Nanjappa, the vice president of conservation programs at the National Parks Conservation Association, told SFGATE in an emailed statement.

"Wildfire response in national parks is an all-hands-on-deck effort. It goes far beyond those with just 'fire' in their job titles and includes staff across departments, from maintenance to natural or cultural resource management, to protect park resources and help keep visitors safe," Nanjappa continued. "Our parks have been gutted by dramatic staffing cuts, losing decades of scientific knowledge and on-the-ground expertise at the moments we need them most. Parks need the tools to manage this growing crisis right now, and that means fully funding and fully staffing the National Park Service."

Preparation for wildfires has also diminished across public lands. According to a report by the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, there's been a 38% decline in wildfire prevention work on Forest Service lands following the Trump administration's federal budget cuts to staffing and resources.

Jayson O'Neill, spokesperson for the conservation campaign Save Our Parks, is unimpressed by Burgum "pointing fingers at dedicated park employees after failing to even visit the site to assess the damage," which he said is "reflective of his failed leadership and the chaos created under his management."

"Burgum is setting up our parks and public lands to fail by design at great risk to users, visitors, and gateway communities," O'Neill wrote in an email to SFGATE. "Now, he's assigning blame instead of taking responsibility when the buck stops with him."

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.