Testing the new generation of AI-enabled fire-extinguishing drones; NPR, November 10, 2026

Halle Zander, NPR; Testing the new generation of AI-enabled fire-extinguishing drones

"On a rare overcast day in late summer, red-and-white fire trucks pepper a grassy strip of land in the mountains of western Colorado.

A persistent buzzing rises and falls as several uniformed staff from the Aspen Fire Protection District huddle around an iPad, watching one of their volunteer firefighters control a massive drone.

This first-of-its-kind machine looks like a giant bug. Black and white with propellers attached to four large arms, it's about 10 by 12 feet wide — roughly the size of a small U-Haul trailer.

While firefighters have used drones to monitor wildfires for decades, this new product could use AI to help extinguish fires."

Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk; The New York Times, April 3, 2026

 Eric Niiler, The New York Times; Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk

Scientists say their work on fires and climate change could be lost as the agency moves its headquarters to Utah from Washington and shuts 57 research stations.

"The U.S. Forest Service is closing 57 of its 77 research facilities in 31 states under a reorganization plan announced this week, threatening science that looked at how wildfires, drought, pests and global warming are putting pressure on forests.

The agency plans to consolidate its research division into a centralized office in Fort Collins, Colo., and move field researchers to locations in nearby states. But employees said they feared the move would lead many scientists to leave instead. The reorganization will also move the agency’s headquarters to Salt Lake City from Washington, affecting 260 employees.

Many of the research facilities are at universities where Forest Service scientists have access to laboratories and computers or at experimental forests where scientists can monitor the effects of environmental changes over long periods of time. They also investigate logging techniques, endangered plant and animal species, and how forests grow back after devastating fires.

The agency is closing six research and development facilities in California, five in Mississippi, four in Michigan and three in Utah, among others...

The Forest Service oversees 193 million acres of forest and grasslands in 43 states and territories, including forests managed for commercial logging and pristine wilderness areas. The agency lost 5,860 of its 35,550 employees during the first half of 2025 to cuts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and early retirement programs, according to an inspector general’s report issued in December...

Mr. Trump has long denied the science and effects of climate change, and his administration has cut funding for climate-related research across the federal government. Conservation groups say that eliminating climate-related science will result in forests that are less healthy, and less resilient to future environmental changes, which also means fewer trees for the wood products industry."