Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Page 13
Preventing another ‘Biscuit’ Proposed law would hinder
Low snow pack could lead to destructive fire season
access to government info.
Fire experts that say a low
snow pack thus far this winter
may lead to another catastro-
phic fire season: just a year
after Oregon suffered through
the worst series of fires in re-
cent memory.
More than 2,000 fires
burned nearly a million acres
of Oregon forestland in 2002,
including the 500,000-acre
Biscuit Fire that nearly caused
evacuation of the entire Illi-
nois Valley, according to Ore-
gon Dept. of Forestry (ODF).
Property owners in rural
or remote forest areas should
begin taking responsibility
now -- before the growing
season -- for reducing fire
risk, even if they have fire
protection, advises Stephen
Fitzgerald, a forester with the
Oregon State University Ex-
tension Service.
Involved with forest fire
issues for the past 12 years,
Fitzgerald is the author of the
book, "Fire In Oregon's For-
ests: Risks, Effects, and Treat-
ment Options," recently pub-
lished by the Oregon Forest
Resources Institute.
Rural and remote homes
are at higher risk for fire than
city dwellings, said Fitzgerald.
"Although you may have rural
fire protection provided by a
local fire protection district,
don't live under the illusion
that firefighters will be able to
extinguish a wildfire before it
gets to your home and prop-
erty," warned Fitzgerald. "In
the event of a large wildfire,
firefighters may not enter
property that has hazardous
fuel conditions, placing them-
selves and fire-fighting equip-
ment at risk."
v v
Late winter and early
spring is a great time to take
action and reduce fuels and
other fire hazards around
homes and property, he said.
To lessen the risk of wild-
fire, Fitzgerald offers a few
simple steps to protect home
and property in wooded and
rural areas. Most of these
tasks can be completed in just
one weekend.
*Create a "green-
belt" (i.e., lawn) 10- to 30-feet
wide around your home.
*Landscape with fire-
resistant plants in irrigated and
non-irrigated portions of your
landscape.
*Clean and remove coni-
fer needles and other debris
from your roof and gutters
annually.
*Prune trees up to eight to
10 feet to eliminate "fuel lad-
ders." You can vary the prun-
ing height so that trees are
more natural appearing.
*Reduce the number of
native shrubs under trees and
in non-irrigated portions of
your property.
Quotes
"Imprisoned in every
fat man a thin one is wildly
signaling to be let out." - Cyril
Connolly
* * *
" 'Classic:' A book
which people praise and don't
read." - Mark Twain
* * *
"(My father) taught me two
things about bills: always
query them and never pay till
you have no alternative." -
Miles Kington
* * *
"The English can be
explained by their Anglo-
Saxon heritage and the influ-
ence of the Methodists. But I
prefer to explain them in
terms of tea, roast beef and
rain. A people is first what it
eats, drinks and gets pelted
with." - Pierre Daninos
* * *
"The lunches of 57
years had caused his chest to
slip down into the mezzanine
floor." - P.G. Wodehouse
*Thin trees so there is
about 10 feet between tree
crowns; clean up thinning de-
bris. Consider removing trees
up against your house or with
branches overhanging the
roof, or at least prune
branches up so they are not in
contact with the side of the
house or roof.
*Keep firewood stacked
30 feet away and uphill from
your home.
*Replace a wood shake
roof with a fire-resistant roof
as soon as possible or feasible.
v v
One challenge home own-
ers face when cleaning up
their property is what to do
with all the debris. Options
include burning small piles,
chipping the material or bring-
ing the debris to your local
landfill. Contact local fire de-
partments for burning regula-
tions before you strike a
match, advises Fitzgerald.
Portable chippers can be
rented to grind up woody de-
bris. The chipped material can
then be spread out on the soil
surface beneath your trees,
used as landscape mulch or
spread on a garden path.
Some county landfills of-
fer "free days" for bring in
yard debris. The landfill then
chips the material to make
large batches of mulch used
by public works departments
and others. Check with local
county landfills to see if they
offer such a program.
Think fire prevention
when planning a new home in
a forested area, advises Fitz-
gerald. Use fire-resistant sid-
ing and non-combustible com-
position, tile or metal roofing
materials. Limit the amount of
deck area because hot embers
can ignite wooden decks.
Build on a level portion of
your property when possible
(fire burns faster on slopes).
Install alternative water (e.g.
cistern or pond) sources for
firefighters because electric
power often fails or is shut off
during a fire making your well
and outside faucets useless.
Create adequate access to
your property for fire-fighting
equipment to enter and exit
easily. Check with local fire
protection districts for en-
trance/exit standards. Don't
forget to display reflective
address numbers where your
driveway meets the street.
Most fire agencies, including
Illinois Valley Fire District,
have reflecive address signs
available.
For more information con-
tact the nearest rural fire pro-
tection district office.
Area field offices of ODF
and county offices of OSU
Extension Service can also
help provide additional infor-
mation.
A proposed Oregon law
might boost protections
against terrorism, but also
could cut off citizens from
vital information about what
their government is doing, the
state chapter of the nation’s
largest journalism organiza-
tion warned.
House Bill 2425, now
moving through the state Leg-
islature, would allow officials
to close meetings and records
involving the security of com-
munication systems, fuel sup-
plies and other resources.
“We understand that spe-
cial security measures have to
be taken in this post-9/11 en-
vironment,” said Jim Murez,
president of the Greater Ore-
gon chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists (SPJ).
“And it’s true that many de-
tails of protective measures
can’t safely be made public.
“But the language of this
bill is so broad and sweeping
that it would let officials hide
information about their big-
gest decisions -- information
to which all Oregonians
should have access.”
For example, said Murez,
a local government trying to
avoid public or press scrutiny
might be able to use the law to
hide plans for a proposed city
hall and the costs taxpayers
would incur for it. Any new
exemption, he said, needs to
be narrowly drawn and
weighed against the strong
public interest in openness.
The text of the bill says it
would permit non-disclosure
of “information about review
or approval of programs relat-
ing to the security of” electric
power, gas, hazardous sub-
stances, sewage water and
communications.
Murez said that this could
exclude citizens from even
broad discussions of resources
that need protection, giving
officials too much freedom to
conduct public business “in
the dark.”
A hearing on the bill that
would restrict access to gov-
ernment meetings and records
under the threat of terrorism
was held in the state Capitol
last week by the House Judici-
ary Committee. Representa-
tives of Oregon Newspaper
Publishers Assciation (ONPA)
and SPJ testified.
The bill, HB2425, origi-
nally proposed to remove any
government meeting discuss-
ing security from the Open
Meetings Law. This meant
that a meeting where security
was being discussed would
not be announced, have no
agenda, and keep no minutes.
The purpose was specifically
to protect the security plans of
private utility companies
while they were being re-
viewed by the Public Utilities
Commission.
The bill also made some
specific records dealing with
security plans totally out of
reach of the public, under sec-
tion 192.502.
Just as the hearing started,
a revised draft was submitted
to the committee that changed
the worst parts of the bill, as
seen through the eyes of
newspapers. The new draft put
meetings back into the Open
Meetings law, in the section
where security discussions
would be held in executive
(closed t the public) session. It
was felt that this would give
public oversight to govern-
ment actions without making
sensitive security information
public.
The new draft also moved
some of the records into
192.501 where a balancing
test is required before a record
can be denied. This, too, was
determined to be the best
place for security records. It
preserves the required secrecy
of security plans while making
them potentially available
when the public interest re-
quires disclosure.
The biggest issue with the
Open Meetings question was
whether a reporter should be
able to sit in a meeting where
sensitive security information
was being discussed, as al-
lowed by the Open Meetings
Law.
Some felt that a reporter
would have no sanctions if
that information was pub-
lished, and untold damage
would result.
Rep. Shetterly said he
supported having a reporter in
executive sessions because his
experience showed that re-
porters respect the law and
actually help keep the govern-
ment body on the subject in
executive sessions.
The actual wording of
some of the phrases has not
yet been agreed upon, but the
principle has been established.
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