Washington, DC…The Trump Administration ended a long dispute with the State of California of the terms of the U.S. Forest Service’s reimbursement to state firefighting agencies for their assistance during the 2018 wildfire suppression efforts on federal lands. The U.S. Forest Service was disputing portions of a $72 million reimbursement owed to California according to the California Fire Assistance Agreement (CFAA).

The U.S. Forest Service ultimately agreed to uphold the CFAA for the remainder of 2019 and complete a full reimbursement to California. CFAA took effect in 2015 and will expire in 2020, when California will have to renegotiate the terms of its agreement with the U.S. Forest Service for cooperative wildfire suppression activities on federal land.

The announcement this week marks the end of a bitter feud between the Trump Administration and California that began with a series of comments from President Trump blaming recent wildfires on the states’ environmental and forest management laws.