A8
OREGON
East Oregonian
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Plans to address huge fi res have gotten smaller
By TED SICKINGER
The Oregonian
SALEM — Despite the
devastation wrought by Ore-
gon’s Labor Day fi res, Gov.
Kate Brown has scaled back
her ambitions when it comes
to addressing the state’s
wildfi re risks — in the near
term at least.
A legislative concept
being circulated by the gov-
ernor’s offi ce for a potential
special session would spend
nearly $50 million over
the next two-year budget
cycle to develop a compre-
hensive wildfi re risk map,
bolster fi refi ghting capac-
ity and target tree thinning
and fuel-reduction projects
in forests identifi ed as high
risk.
But the legislation backs
away from some of the ele-
ments included in a more
comprehensive bill intro-
duced last year that sought
new building codes for
local governments requir-
ing new construction to
be more fi re-resistant —
a move many West Coast
states have pursued and
that many experts believe
is the most effective way to
reduce those risks. Brown’s
proposal for a special ses-
sion also backs away from
forcing utilities to adopt
wildfi re risk reduction stan-
dards or directing insurance
companies to build wildfi re
risk into their underwriting
standards.
Each of those elements
was included in legislation
introduced in early 2020,
though the bill was watered
down by lawmakers and lob-
byists, and ultimately died
when Republicans walked
out of the session.
Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ash-
Andy Nelson/Eugene Register-Guard, File
Workers clean up at the Finn Rock Landing on the McKenzie River near Finn Rock on Sept. 15, 2020, eight days after the Holiday
Farm Fire swept through the area. The landing is a popular spot for rafters to begin their fl oat trips down the McKenzie River.
land, who chaired the Ore-
gon Legislature’s commit-
tee on Wildfi re Reduction
and Recovery, called the
governor’s concept “Senate
Bill 1536-light,” referring to
the more comprehensive bill
that died earlier this year.
He said many of the com-
plicated and controversial
elements had been stripped
out for a bill that could pass
during a special session,
though he’s still interested
in tweaking the concept if a
session occurs.
“If there is going to be
a bill it’s going to be sim-
pler and not take on the big
fi ghts,” he said. “If it hap-
pens, we’ll be in there for
a day, and (a more compre-
hensive bill) just doesn’t
work.”
The legislative concept
sticks with the same three-
prong approach presented
to lawmakers in Senate
Bill 1536, which was based
on November 2019 recom-
mendations from the Gov-
ernor’s Council on Wildfi re
Response. It would spend
nearly $50 million from the
state general fund on com-
munity preparedness, bol-
stering fi refi ghting capac-
ity, and mitigation through
investments in thinning and
cleaning debris from forest
fl oors.
The bill would direct $8
million to $10 million to
several measures promot-
ing “fi re-adapted commu-
nities.” It calls on the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry
to develop a comprehensive
map of wildfi re risk by Feb-
ruary 2021. It also directs the
State Fire Marshal to estab-
lish minimum defensible
space requirements around
homes and communities in
wildfi re prone areas, with
those standards to be admin-
istered and enforced by local
governments. And it directs
the Oregon Health Author-
ity to establish a program to
increase the availability of
smoke fi ltration systems for
vulnerable populations in
areas susceptible to wildfi re.
While the concept does
not include any new build-
ing code requirements to
make homes more fi re resis-
tant, it does call for the cre-
ation of a workgroup to
identify building code gaps
and needed updates in areas
of high fi re risk, with rec-
ommendations due by the
end of the 2021 legislative
session.
The Oregon Homes
Builders Association, the
Oregon Association of
Realtors, the Oregon Farm
Bureau and the Oregon
Property Owners Associa-
tion opposed land use and
defensible space prescrip-
tions in Senate Bill 1536 last
year.
Mark Long, chief execu-
tive of the builders associa-
tion, said last week that his
group is supportive of code
changes to make homes
more fi re resistant, but
only if the state develops a
searchable map that catego-
rizes wildfi re risks for spe-
cifi c geographic areas and
the specifi c codes that apply
based on those localized
risks.
An article last month in
the Street Roots newspaper
suggested that Long’s asso-
ciation had reached a secret
deal with the governor’s
offi ce to head off such code
changes. It included taped
conversations of board
members discussing that
understanding. Both Long
and the governor’s offi ce
told The Oregonian that
such a deal never existed.
“Conversations are still
ongoing with legislators
and stakeholders about how
we will be able to secure
the funding for the gover-
nor’s wildfi re preparedness
priorities,” Charles Boyle,
a spokesman for the gover-
nor’s offi ce told The Orego-
nian. “It is our hope that safe
zone creation for homes will
be a part of the fi nal pack-
age. We also expect to again
make recommendations for
building codes in 2021 as
we did in 2020, though it
remains unclear if legisla-
tors will support it.”
The legislative concept
envisions another $25 mil-
lion for the Department of
Forestry and the Oregon
State Fire Marshal’s offi ce to
bolster fi refi ghting, includ-
ing aircraft and additional
staff. Similar investments
were contemplated last year,
though they too generated
debate from lawmakers con-
cerned about investing new
money in the fi nancially
troubled Department of For-
estry. Environmental groups
also complained that law-
makers were doubling down
on a strategy — fi re sup-
pression — that helped cre-
ate the risky conditions in
forests today.
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