OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
SaTuRday, JunE 18, 2022
Firefighter Critics fear restrictions coming with new wildfire map
shortage
raises
concerns
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Oregon Capital Chronicle
WASHINGTON —
Oregon faces a shortage
of wildland firefighters
that could be “a recipe for
trouble,” according to U.S.
Sen. Ron Wyden.
Wyden wrote to U.S.
Secretary of the Interior Deb
Haaland and U.S. Secretary
of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
recently with concerns that
their agencies weren’t pre-
pared to handle another cat-
astrophic fire season such as
that of 2020 and 2021.
He said one out of five
wildland firefighter jobs in
Oregon and Washington
stand empty, depleting the
ranks of those tasked with
containing and quelling
wildfires. The wildland fire-
fighting program for the
region is currently staffed at
1,840 firefighters, according
to the U.S. Forest Service.
The agency considers 2,281
to be fully staffed.
“Oregon is still strug-
gling to build after two
back-to-back horrific fire
seasons,” Wyden wrote. He
said the federal agencies
have access to more money
for wildfire prevention and
fighting than ever before
with the passage of the
Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act in November,
which included $600 million
to boost firefighter wages
nationwide and $8 billion
for states to mitigate wild-
fire risk.
“Your departments
received this much needed
support. Now, more than six
months after being given
this new flexibility, we are
past time for action,” Wyden
said.
He asked for an update
on how funds had been dis-
tributed so far, how funding
amounts to each region of
the country were deter-
mined and how many acres
the U.S. Forest Service
would treat in Oregon, such
as getting rid of dead and
dying debris in federal for-
ests. Representatives from
Wyden’s office said he has
not had a response from
either Haaland or Vilsack to
his June 7 letter.
At a June 9 meeting with
the U.S. Forest Service Chief
Randy Moore, Wyden fur-
ther pressed for information
on where federal money was
going, and when Oregon
would be receiving greater
federal help with wildfire
prevention, management and
firefighter shortages.
About half of Oregon
belongs to the federal gov-
ernment, which has so far
allocated $39 million to the
state to spend over five years
for wildfire prevention under
the infrastructure bill.
For wildfire prevention,
Moore said the Forest Ser-
vice will treat vegetation on
20 million acres of national
forests over the next 10
years, and collaborate with
other local and state agen-
cies and tribes to treat 30
million more.
“Our plan is to look at
50 million acres within this
time frame in order to make
a difference on how that fire
is behaving across, partic-
ularly, the West,” he told
Wyden.
On workforce shortages,
Wyden laid out the extent of
the need.
“Western states are actu-
ally trying to borrow fire-
fighters from each other,”
Wyden said to Moore.
Wyden said that firefighters
he spoke with in Oregon
universally wanted better
pay.
“We already see these
‘help wanted’ signs offering
much better pay in various
other positions,” Wyden
said. “Given the billions of
dollars Congress provided
in the Bipartisan Infrastruc-
ture Act, particularly for for-
estry, the question from Ore-
gonians is obvious — how
is the department going to
use that money to fix this
shortage of permanent wild-
land fire positions?”
Stayton Fire district/Contributed Photo, File
The Oregon Department of Forestry has approved mapping rules that critics fear will cause over-
regulation of rural properties.
said Tim Holschbach, the
agency’s fire prevention and
policy manager.
The agency will send out
written notices to 250,000-
300,000 landowners
affected by the rules. They
can appeal their classifica-
tions if they’re subject to
regulation, he said. Periodic
audits will review the effec-
tiveness of the rules, which
can continue to be modified.
As the rollout of
the wildfire map gets
underway, ODF realizes
it will be in a “fish bowl”
of public scrutiny and it
expects that revisions will
be necessary, said Mike
Shaw, the agency’s fire
chief.
“The agency’s work is
not done. The work will
continue through this year.
We know we’re not going
to be perfect,” Shaw said.
“There will be adjustments
in the future. This is a great
first step.”
The Oregon Farm
Bureau has worried about
adverse impacts to agricul-
ture since lawmakers began
negotiating comprehensive
wildfire legislation last year.
The Legislature ended
up passing Senate Bill 762,
which the Farm Bureau crit-
icized for its “top-down”
approach to wildfire miti-
gation. The group favored
a “bottom-up” strategy
of consulting with rural
communities proposed in
another bill.
To get the bill over the
finish line, lawmakers elim-
inated SB 762’s definition of
wildland-urban interface, or
WUI, and instead directed
the Board of Forestry to set
the parameters based on
“national best practices.”
However, the Farm
Bureau and other critics
believe the board’s WUI
criteria are nonetheless
overly broad. The vast
acreage likely included in
the designation will leave
people “shocked,” said
Lauren Smith, the group’s
director of government and
national affairs.
“Our legislators will be
very surprised when they
start getting constituent
calls,” she said. “When you
UNION COUNTY MUSEUM
Third Tuesday Event
the Mystery & History of Goodbrod Lake
Researched and presented by Steve Wadner
June 21, 7 to 8 p.m.
in the Little White Church
Learn about the lake
that once graced the
city of Union.
Who was the man known
locally as General Goodbrod?
South Main St., Union
Thurs. & Sat., 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
www.ucmuseumoregon.com
Tiny Micro-Chip In the Ear:
Now Available!
Now You
See It...
Now You
Don’t!
• One of the smallest custom hearing aids ever made
• 48 channel digital signal processing
• Digital engineering allows 1,000’s of custom settings
• Controlled by state-of-the-art software
Spaces are limited, call today for your FREE* Hearing Evaluation!
Don’t
wait! Offer
Offer expires
expires November
Don’t
wait!
June 24, 10th!
2022
La Grande
111 Elm St.
La Grande, OR 97850
(541) 605-2109
Baker City
2021 Washington Ave.
Baker City, OR 97814
(541) 239-3782
Enterprise
113 1/2 Front E Main St.
Enterprise, OR 97828
(541) 239-3877
One More Thing
Some parts of the evaluation include the use of a familiar voice, so please bring a spouse,
family member, or friend with you. Call us today to confi rm your appointment time!
The Miracle-Ear Advantage:
$3,290
$995
*
Receive 2
AudioTone
Pro Hearing aids at
$995 for a limited
time only.
• 100% Satisfaction Guarantee*
• 3- Year Limited Warranty**
• FREE Lifetime Service
• Over 1,200 Locations Nationwide
• Over 65 Years in Business
Mention Code:
Code: 22JunTiny
21NovTiny
Mention
*limit one coupon per patient at the promotional
price during event dates only. Not valid with any other
discount or off er. Does not apply to prior purchases.
Fits up to a 35 db loss. Off er expires 11/10/2021
6/24/22.
*Pursuant to terms of your purchase agreement, the aids may be returned in satisfactory condition within 30 days for a full refund. Fitting fee may apply. **Not
valid on Audiotone Pro
Most Insurance Plans Accepted Including Blue Cross Blue Shield
Jerry Gildemeister Collection
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
SALEM — Oregon for-
estry officials are bracing
for controversy after
approving statewide hazard
ratings that encompass up
to 300,000 properties with
elevated risk of wildfires.
Many of those tracts are
expected to face new defen-
sible space and building
code requirements under
“wildland-urban interface”
criteria recently enacted
by the state’s Board of
Forestry.
Critics anticipate the
two regulatory actions
will result in sweeping and
unworkable restrictions for
rural communities when
a map of affected areas is
released later this month.
Blowback from rural
residents against the new
requirements is expected by
the state forestry officials
due to objections they’ve
encountered during the
rule-making process.
“We have to recognize
there will be people and
organizations that will con-
tinue to push against this
and attempt to embarrass
the department and related
agencies,” said Jim Kelly,
the board’s chair, during
a recent meeting. “It will
enter into the governor’s
race and all that. I think we
all need to be prepared.”
The Oregon Department
of Forestry received roughly
twice as many comments
opposed to the mapping
regime than in favor of
it, mostly because people
thought the wildland-urban
interface was too expansive,
get a WUI that is nearly
the size of the state of
Oregon, it sort of defeats the
purpose.”
Properties will be subject
to regulation only if they’re
both within the WUI and
have a hazard rating of
“high” or “extreme” wild-
fire risk.
Roughly 250,000-
300,000 properties fall into
the “high” and “extreme”
risk categories, but ODF
doesn’t yet have an estimate
of how many are also in the
WUI.
The Farm Bureau
expects a great deal of
overlap, which will have a
drastic effect on rural areas,
Smith said.
“You’ll see large
swaths of entire commu-
nities pulled into high or
extreme risk WUI,” she
said. “There’s a lot of regu-
lation going on focused on
this map and all these rural
communities, and not a lot
of representation by them.”