(Update: This article was updated at 12:25 p.m. Tuesday, April 8, to include new information released by the governor’s office that differs from the claim that only “half” of Oklahoma Forestry Services resources were deployed. The first section of this article still contains the governor’s original statements and has been updated to include the newly released information.)
After extreme weather conditions spurred a March 14 outbreak of wildfires that resulted in four Oklahomans dying and more than 400 homes being destroyed, Gov. Kevin Stitt terminated Oklahoma Forestry Services director Mark Goeller, a decision that sparked outrage in the firefighting community and begged the question of whether the move was vindictive or based on actual performance. Further inflaming the situation, Stitt suggested April 2 that the OFS division of state government could be shut down — a bold proposal that drew the ire of legislators and a letter from three dozen business, industry and firefighter organizations imploring the governor to maintain the entity in its current form.
“We strongly urge you to reconsider any effort to eliminate or diminish this agency’s response capability, which has served as a critical partner and force multiplier for fire departments across Oklahoma,” read the letter headlined by the State Firefighters Association. “OFS has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with local firefighters during large-scale, complex wildfire incidents for decades, bringing with them specialized equipment, operational expertise, and a depth of experience that cannot be replicated at the local level. Their rapid deployment and coordination during the recent March 14-16th fires helped prevent significant loss of property and ensure the health of our residents.”
But as lawmakers awaited the release of the letter Monday, Stitt’s office beat the groups to the punch by distributing an op-ed from the governor and a set of statistics that claim only about “half” of OFS resources were deployed that fateful March weekend. According to Abegail Cave, the governor’s communications director, “only” 51 of 96 firefighters, 12 of 34 engines and 16 of 37 bulldozers were deployed to fire sites.
Underscoring the dispute over what resources were or were not deployed, however, an apparent Oklahoma Forestry Services event log obtained by NonDoc states that OFS had already responded to more than 50 wildfires that burned nearly 5,000 acres between March 10 and March 13. The next day marked the “beginning of the extreme fire weather event.”
“High winds ground all fire suppression aircraft throughout the day,” the March 14 entry stated. “All available Forestry Services firefighting resources were assigned to fires in multiple locations across the state. Resource requests from the field to Forestry Services and Oklahoma Emergency Management were unable to be filled because every state and local firefighting resources were engaged in ongoing wildfires. Forestry Services alone responded to 36 fires that burned approximately 32,226 acres. Ten fires reached large fire status. Twelve fires from previous days remained active.”
Despite that claim, Stitt used the op-ed released Monday to double down on his contention that Goeller had to go.
“Unfortunately, I learned that the Oklahoma Forestry Services, the agency tasked with preventing and suppressing wildfires, did not use every resource at their disposal to save lives and property. They neglected their duties and left local fire departments begging for further resources to fight fires. That is simply unacceptable,” Stitt said. “I asked the forestry director to step down so we could get a fresh set of eyes on this division and take decisive steps to prevent a tragedy like this from happening in the future.”
Stitt wrote that he asked Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur and Oklahoma Emergency Management director Annie Vest to “dig into what happened on March 14.”
“They were met with reluctance to give answers,” Stitt wrote. “When they received the answers they needed, they found that the director only deployed half of his available resources to help local firefighters around the state. While our local firefighters were stretched thin, leadership at Forestry Services failed to act with the urgency the moment demanded.”
Stitt again suggested what he had on April 2: that perhaps the $24 million of state appropriations to OFS would be better used by local fire departments.
“When I learn information like this, I have no choice but to make a change,” Stitt wrote. “As we dig into this agency, we will efficiently use funds to build the division back better or we can divert resources to local fire stations that are better situated to protect their communities.”
However, by Tuesday morning — less than 24 hours after this article’s original publication and more than three weeks after the fires — Stitt’s office had received a new PDF map outlining the March 14 deployment and locations of OFS resources. The numbers on the map reflected different figures than Cave had released Monday when saying “half” of resources had been deployed.
According to an email from OFS assistant director Andy James to Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur, the initially announced lower figures appeared to reflect the OFS resources deployed “outside” of two forest “protection areas” along Oklahoma’s eastern border. That distinction could have been the nexus of confusion about whether all OFS resources were deployed. And while the map’s numbers still show that six personnel, three engines and seven bulldozers were not deployed at 8 a.m. the morning of March 14, the gap is significantly less than “half.”
“It’s frustrating that each time we receive information, it is incomplete or inaccurate,” Cave said Tuesday. “The people of Oklahoma deserve answers about what happened that day. The governor will continue to hold state officials accountable and we will not stop until we get answers.”
Cave also expressed surprise that NonDoc had been able to obtain the OFS event log from a third party while executive branch leaders had not received it in response to their direct requests.
“It’s strange to me that leadership at forestry can easily provide the media a timeline of where resources were on the day of the fires, but when the secretary of agriculture and the governor’s office ask, we get the runaround,” Cave said. “Three weeks is an unacceptable timeframe to provide this information.”
In the Firefighter Association letter released Monday afternoon, organizations like the State Chamber of Oklahoma, the Petroleum Alliance, the Oklahoma Education Association and the Association of County Commissioners joined to argue that closing OFS would be a terrible mistake.
“While we understand the importance of fiscal efficiency, dismantling OFS would not reduce costs — it would shift the burden to already strained local departments and jeopardize coordinated wildfire management across the state,” the letter stated. “Eliminating this agency would be a step backward, leaving our state more vulnerable in a time of growing wildfire risk.”
Instead of cutting the department, the groups asked Stitt to “strengthen the wildfire mission of Oklahoma Forestry Services,” which reportedly has about 130 employees at the moment, more than half of whom are wildland firefighters.
During a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow) hinted at what legislators have groused about in private: that the division’s attempt to comply with Stitt’s 2019 executive order hiring freeze “for classified employee positions” has resulted in fewer Forestry Services employees.
For instance, while 14 jobs are listed on the Forestry Services hiring page, each link returns an error stating: “The page you are looking for doesn’t exist.”
Mark Goeller caught in the crosshairs
Named state forester and director of Oklahoma Forestry Services in 2018, Goeller had been the fire management chief and assistant director at OFS since 2005. All in all, he worked for the agency for more than 40 years.
“The most recent event in my life has been an emotional rollercoaster. In the last week I have experienced shock, confusion, grief, fear, anxiety, pain, anger, love, and comfort,” Goeller, 67, wrote in a March 30 post to Facebook. “I have been falsely accused of not performing the duties necessary to protect life and property in a timely manner.”
A division of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the mission of Oklahoma Forestry Services is “to conserve, enhance and protect Oklahoma’s forests” through “active conservation management.” It is also the state’s primary agency tasked with detecting, suppressing, preventing and investigating wildfires — a duty the agency failed to meet in mid-March, according to the governor.
“Here’s the deal: Why do I even have a Department of Forestry? Let’s just get rid of the whole thing,” Stitt said April 2. “That would save $75 million for the taxpayers. Or let’s take $50 million of that and let’s give it to our local firefighters. Let’s give it to our volunteer fire departments. The folks throughout the state that are actually already there doing this, because the bureaucracy in Oklahoma City let our local folks down.”
Irked by Stitt’s idea, lawmakers spent that night and the next morning reviewing Title 2, Section 16 of state statutes, which outlines the duties of the forestry service.
“The forestry department was set by the Legislature and funded by the Legislature. That would be our authority (as to) whether we keep the forestry department or not,” Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton said Thursday, April 3. “As far as the comments go, I am confused by it. I don’t understand where that came from. I completely do not share the views of the governor that that’s something that could be eliminated if we want to talk about efficiency.”
Paxton (R-Tuttle) has been a volunteer firefighter for 34 years. He acknowledged some fires are by nature difficult to contain, especially when weather conditions — like the low humidity and high wind speeds recorded in mid-March — are unfavorable. But he said the destruction from the recent Oklahoma wildfires fails to justify eliminating OFS.
“It sounds like a really bad idea to me,” Paxton said of Stitt’s proposal. “I don’t understand. I would like to have a conversation with the governor that we have not had — a conversation regarding the firing of the former director, or the forestry department itself. But it is a very useful tool for fire departments in the state. It has been for the last 100 years, and we should keep it. We should make sure it’s efficient, but we need to keep it in place.”
As for the allocation of resources throughout the state, Paxton said he and Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell had been briefed by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and OFS the morning of March 14 regarding the locations of firefighting equipment, including bulldozers and “super scoopers.”
Paxton questioned why a statewide burn ban — which can only be issued by the governor, typically at the advice of Forestry Services — was not placed in effect earlier that week after forecasts came out.
“It would be more prudent to have a statewide burn ban on the Wednesday and Thursday prior to Friday’s weather conditions,” Paxton said. “The weather conditions were not a surprise.”
Standing alongside legislators with firefighting experience at an April 3 media availability, Hilbert said Stitt’s call to eliminate OFS is “unacceptable.”
“I’m hearing from firefighters in my district. I know all my colleagues around me are firefighters in their district who are frankly furious about what has happened, and the insult, not only to the department of forestry, but also to the fire service in general,” he said.
Concerned that Stitt could eventually use his line-item veto powers to weaken Oklahoma Forestry Services, this first Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget meeting of the session could be called this week to lock OFS funding into the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
“There’s a possibility of that. I know we’re currently in conversations with my counterpart in the Senate to see if we can bring something — especially in regards to this forestry issue — to a quick conclusion,” said House A&B Committee Chairman Trey Caldwell (R-Lawton). “So I think that’s something that is definitely on the table.”
‘Everybody is supporting them’
The firing of Mark Goeller has incensed some state leaders and first responders, who claim the governor is assigning blame where it does not belong.
“It should be inconceivable to think that the courage, skill and herculean work of firefighters across the state would be rewarded with the sudden and inexplicable ouster of director Goeller,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement. “Honestly, the governor’s action is baffling. While the wildfires that swept through our state this month exacted a heavy toll, the death and devastation would have been far, far worse without the strong coordinated effort of firefighters and Oklahoma Forestry Services.”
On Facebook, Goeller pushed back against the assertion his agency had withheld any firefighting resources.
“The agency to which I dedicated over 40 years of my life was said to have performed poorly. Preparations were made well in advance, the public was notified of the impending fire danger, firefighting resources were ordered and in place. Nothing was held back as the events of the 14th and following days unfolded,” he wrote. “My agency’s wildland firefighters plus the career and volunteer firefighters in this state risked their lives willingly to protect lives and property in historic fire weather conditions. Loss of life and property would have been much greater without these brave individuals risking it all for all. I am incredibly proud of their dedication to the safety and welfare of the citizens of Oklahoma. We are truly blessed to have Oklahoma’s fire service.”
Goeller’s post has more than 70 comments and 430 shares, with firefighters and other emergency response personnel from across the state voicing support for the former forestry director.
In addition to individual firefighters commenting support, some official fire department accounts also posted their thoughts on Goeller’s termination. Jason Dobson, the fire chief of the Olive Volunteer Fire Department in Creek County, expressed consternation on behalf of his organization in a Facebook post.
“In response to this firing, a statement in support of our friend is warranted. Olive FD worked closely with director Goeller on several wildfires including the historic 2012 Creek County wildfire that devastated our community. We have attended many classes he instructed across the state to better prepare us for wildfires. Director Goeller not only cared for this state but cared for our communities in addition to being very well educated and experienced firefighter,” Dobson said. “There was nothing anybody could do to fully prepare for Friday, March 14. The weather conditions given that day — a persistent drought, unseasonal high temperatures, extremely low humidity and hurricane force winds — made for a perfect firestorm. The only one to blame for this is Mother Nature.”
Other fire departments, including Eufaula Fire Department, Butler Fire Department, Fairview Fire Department, Stigler Fire Department, Jay Fire Department and Kellyville Fire Department shared Goeller’s post, with some adding their own messages of support.
David Hogg, a researcher at The Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations who tracked the fires alongside National Weather Service meteorologists, questioned who Goeller’s firing helps.
“When you force out the good people, the competent people, the people that care about these positions — who’s left? If a response wasn’t great under this highly competent and respected leadership, what is it going to be like next time? How does this make things better? A competent government cannot function this way,” Hogg wrote on Facebook.
Stitt lost a farmhouse in the fire. The Oklahoman reported that his spokesman said Goeller’s firing had nothing to do with Stitt’s loss of property. But that has not changed the response of firefighters to the governor’s decision.
“I have gotten phone calls supporting the forestry department all weekend from all over the state,” Rep. Eddy Dempsey (R-Valliant) said Monday morning. “Everybody is supporting them. It’s beaucoups of emails that I’ve gotten.”
Meteorologists: OFS, NWS collaboration has improved wildfire response
While Stitt has pledged to reveal more information about which resources he believes were withheld from firefighting efforts March 14, it’s clear OFS had advanced warning of how dangerous conditions could be that day.
Since about 2015, the National Weather Service and OFS have collaborated to advance wildfire identification and response times. The NWS provides information from its satellites to identify “hot spots,” abnormally hot areas that may indicate fire. Foresters and meteorologists can coordinate to create fire spread models intended to keep those on the ground informed.
“The partnership, it’s been strong in the past. It’s strong now. And as some good friends of ours like to say, it’s where everybody’s mission statements overlap: protection of life and property,” said Mark Fox, the meteorologist in charge at the Norman Weather Forecast Office.
The local partnership between the NWS and OFS — praised last year by NWS national director Ken Graham as the first of its kind — has been a success, according to Norman meteorologists and OFS officials. In fact, Goeller called a 2024 wildfire outbreak “the most proactively warned fires in U.S. history” as a result of the collaboration.
The early identification of potentially dangerous conditions March 14 allowed Canadian-built “super scooper” planes to arrive in state March 12, said Todd Lindley, the Norman forecast office’s science and operations officer. The same day, a wildfire outlook created by the NWS, OFS and other partner institutions identified a 60 percent chance of wildfires in north-central Oklahoma, with fires expected to burn more than 10,000 acres. On March 14, the Norman Weather Forecast Office was packed full of meteorologists like it would be on a day carrying a high risk of tornadoes — with the addition of a representative from OFS.
“I just remember walking in and thinking, ‘I hope we’re wrong,’ because we were looking at this like a sports team looks at a big game. ‘It’s the 14th, we’ve got to be ready,’” Fox said. “And, unfortunately, reality happened just like the forecast.”
Scott Curl, a senior meteorologist at the forecast office, has been embedded with OFS since February to bring their partnership “to a new level.” Curl said he has worked with OFS to improve the speed of communication between the NWS and OFS, allowing the federal agency and the state agency to exchange information faster. On March 14, those changes were put to the test. According to Lindley, they made it easier for the forecast office to issue fire warnings.
“That was actually the very first event where we were able to see the fire spread models right in our systems. In the past, they were either emailed, or a picture texted, and we were basically trying to guess where to put the (warning) polygon based on that,” Lindley said. “That image was outside our system. Now we can see it inside our system and better draw the polygon right around where the fire looks like it’s going to spread.”
The improvements made by OFS and the NWS have saved lives and money, according to research by Jack Carter, a meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma. He analyzed fire seasons from 2022 and 2024 in Oklahoma and Texas, which now has a similar setup with its own forestry service, and studied the effect of forestry services moving their fire fighting resources based on the projections created by the collaborating agencies. Comparing the data to wildfires before the collaboration began, Carter found the percentage of fatalities in a fire-affected population has decreased.
“The values saved — the homes and structures and property saved due to those efforts — compared to what they’re actually spending to move the resources was a net economic impact of just under $800 million in a three-year period,” Lindley said.
‘Nature is really in control’
The events of March 14, according to the meteorologists, were caused by a perfect storm of conditions.
“The combinations of relative humidity and wind speed that we saw, we have a particular measure for that called the Red Flag threat index. And those values were in what are considered the historically critical category,” Lindley said.
After studying fire in the plains for more than 17 years, Lindley said the conditions were among the worst he has seen. Part of the state was also under what meteorologists call a low-level thermal ridge, an anomalously warm area that can send high winds rushing toward the surface of the Earth. Despite the severity of conditions, Curl said coordination with OFS and Oklahoma Emergency Management went well.
“When you have so many starts, so many fires, so rapidly occurring, it can be overwhelming at times, even for the best of people,” Curl said. “It obviously always takes good communication. And [with] that many people, it really takes good communication, which we had. I think that’s vital to work a successful event. And so every single person is doing whatever is needed to do to accomplish that mission.”
As to Stitt’s claims that resources were “withheld,” the meteorologists were explicitly clear they could only speak for the NWS, which they said deployed all resources to the best of their ability.
“You don’t see these kind of events very often, and you hope you never do, because it’s going to push your ability. But that makes us better, right? And so when you go through an event like this, I think all you can do is improve. And I thought we did an exceptional job anyway, but you know, it will just ready you for the next time,” Curl said. “You have to be very focused in situations like this. And so I think everybody in that room was.”
All in all, the NWS identified 155 hot spots and issued 41 fire warnings across its Norman, Tulsa and Amarillo forecast offices on March 14 — accounting for 8 percent of all fire warnings issued since the designation’s creation in 2006.
“If this were a (storm) convection, this would have been the El Reno day or May 3,” Fox said. “It’d be up in that category.”
For Oklahomans unsure of the best way to stay aware of fire dangers, Lindley said warnings are disseminated similar to tornado warnings and can be found on NWS social media pages and through local news coverage. NWS is working with Oklahoma Emergency Management to get fire warnings to cell phones the same way Amber Alerts and tornado warnings are shared, but otherwise, meteorologists are still working on the “social science” of how to keep the public informed in the case of fire warnings.
Lindley said the number of fires reported in recent years has decreased, but the severity of fires has increased. Scientists are still trying to determine what is causing that change, but land management practices — including the pervasiveness of the highly flammable and often invasive eastern red cedar — are primary suspects.
“I do think it’s important to emphasize that, in a firestorm like that, nature is really in control,” Lindley said. “There are only so many offensive tactics that a fire department or fire force of any kind can (take). There’s a limited amount of progress they can make on the actual fire fight on a day like that, and they have to go defensive and get people out of harm’s way until there’s a shift in the environment.”
(Correction: This article was updated at 6:40 p.m. Monday, April 7, to correct the title of Abegail Cave.)
Read the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association letter
Read the Oklahoma Forestry Services log
