This summer, climate change came home to San Luis Obispo County. In July, the Madre Fire burned more than 80,000 acres. Just days later, the Gifford Fire erupted and consumed more than 130,000 acres across SLO and Santa Barbara counties. Families have been forced to evacuate. Firefighters have been injured. Rural roads have been cut off.
Thanks to our hardworking fire crews, so far there has not been significant loss of life or property. But let this serve as a warning.
The fire came within a mile of the town of Pozo, closer still to homes at Pippin Corner. If this had occurred during our typical Santa Lucia winds (only a month away), we might not have had such a good outcome, even with 5,000 personnel and more than a million gallons of fire retardant dropped from planes. Backfires, which saved the day in this fire, would have been impossible.
These aren’t just “acts of nature.” They are the predictable result of hotter, drier conditions caused by climate change—made worse by political choices.
During the first Trump administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) saw large cuts to its Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program, which funds community resilience projects like flood control, fire breaks, and emergency evacuation planning. Billions in grants to states and counties were delayed or canceled, leaving communities without the resources to prepare before disasters strike.
FEMA lost nearly 20 percent of its workforce from 2017-18. This can cause slower recovery efforts and reduced capacity to deploy to wildfire zones, hurricanes, and floods. Fire prevention budgets that fund crews, equipment, and forest management shrank. These actions leave communities like ours more exposed and less prepared.
The administration’s Big Beautiful Bill repealed lifesaving incentives for weather resilience, energy efficiency, and improved air quality in American communities. It cut the Inflation Reduction Act’s federally funded initiatives, such as air pollution monitoring, cleaning up ports, home energy efficiency upgrades, and emissions-free school buses.
While Washington is consumed by authoritarian chaos, our safety depends on what happens here, now. Local government—our county supervisors, city councils, and regional agencies—can take immediate action to reduce risk. But they will only do it if we make them. We must hold them accountable.
If we want a safer, more resilient SLO County, we must insist on:
1. Fully funding prevention. More crews for defensible space, prescribed burns, and vegetation management—with good wages to attract skilled workers.
2. Stronger building rules. Fire-resistant materials and drought-tolerant, low-fuel landscaping.
3. Clean energy investment. Build local renewables to cut the emissions driving hotter, drier summers. Support clean and resilient energy solutions like rooftop solar with battery storage, and in the future, offshore wind turbines.
This is not the time for polite silence. Call your county supervisor. Email your city council. Show up at meetings. Ask what they’re doing to protect us from the next big fire—and don’t accept vague answers. Join local climate and community groups. Support candidates who believe in science and reject those who undermine it.
Wildfires don’t care about party lines—but the policies that make them worse are political. When leaders slash funding for disaster response and deny climate science, they are making choices that cause home insurance rates to skyrocket and cost lives, homes, and livelihoods.
The Trump administration made those choices. And unless we hold leaders accountable at every level—federal, state, and local—we will face more devastation.
The Madre and Gifford fires are not the end of this story. Without bold action, they are a preview of our future. We cannot wait for Washington to save us, but we also can’t ignore the role national politics plays in our local safety.
SLO County must act. And we, the people who live here, must demand it. Speak out. Get involved. Vote like your community depends on it—because it does. Δ
Don Gaede is with SLO County Citizens’ Climate Education and Eric Veium is with the SLO Climate Coalition. Write a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Aug 21-31, 2025.
