Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 2019)
12A | SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2019 | SIUSLAW NEWS FIRES from page 1A if the deployment is long term. Firefighters must be housed and fed while work- ing out of the district and the costs associated with bringing vehicles and equip- ment to fires is also a finan- cial consideration. These ex- penses are expected during this type of deployment, but the delay in reimbursement to fire departments which participate in these types of conflagrations is often months long. SVFR Chief Michael Schick believes the new funding process will be a clear benefit for his depart- ment and the community it serves. “I absolutely support this legislation. We have been funding the forest service for many years as if we don’t expect to have large wild- land fires. As we can see, this is unfortunately going to be the norm for many years to come. In many parts of the country, especially in the West, our forests have be- come extremely overgrown, resulting in exceptionally high fuel loads. And with the warmer, dryer weather patterns, we now see these extremely large fires,” Schick said. He added, “As we have seen over the last few years, even though we may not live close to a fire, the smoke from the fire can severely impact our citizens over a very large area. We can con- tinue to just react to these fires, or we can try to start solving the underlying is- sues.” The recent Oregon Coast- al Caucus Economic Sum- mit (OCCES), held Aug. 21 and 22 in Florence, attracted hundreds of educators, pol- iticians and public officials to participate in panel dis- cussions touching on a wide range of topics, one of which was significantly changing the process for paying for these types of fire suppres- sion costs. Two of the more recog- nizable speakers, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, were in- volved in keynote presenta- tions that updated attendees on a number of legislative changes, many of which will impact local residents. One of particular inter- est to SVFR is a legislative initiative introduced by DeFazio, U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, Wyden and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, which would change the way in which firefighting is funded in the future. The new legislation, which will soon become law, would replace what many see as an outdated system which bases wildland fire suppression budgets on the average costs of the prior 10 years. This amount is often wildly divergent from the current actual cost of fight- ing fires and doesn’t take into account the significant- ly higher costs associated with firefighting in the pres- ent day — or the increasing number of blazes needing to be suppressed. One of the peculiarities of the outdated system is the fact that U.S. Forest Ser- vice and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) must operate within their appro- priated budgets or divert money from other work being done by those depart- ments. This is different than a response to other natural disasters, like hurricane and floods, which allow incident commanders to draw from an emergency fund rather than paying for emergency efforts out of departmental operating budgets. In his remarks regarding the new legislation which passed with bipartisan sup- port, DeFazio was intro- duced by Oregon Rep. Cad- die McKeown, who voiced concern with the available resources for fire season. “So far, this season of wildfire has not been as se- vere as seasons past and we hope it continues in that way,” McKeown said. “But we also all know that last year, smoke from a number of fires negatively affected residents and tourism on the southern coast partic- ularly, and many of us can’t forget the 2017 Chetco fire which burned hundreds of thousands of acres and came within five miles of Brook- ings. What is Congress do- ing to ensure that when a wildfire breaks out we have the resources to fight it ef- fectively?” DeFazio was prepared for the question and replied, “I have been fighting for a number of years to change the way we fund firefighting … and starting this fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, the Forest Service will have a limited budget for fight- ing forest fires. When they exceed that budget, FEMA (Federal Emergency Man- agement Agency) pays for it, but the Forest Service will still manage — because they For more information consider volunteering to be know how to fight fires,” about Siuslaw Valley, or to a firefighter, visit svfr.org. DeFazio said. “Now, they won’t have to pull back on fuel reduction contracts and other things any longer. With this, we can start to get ahead of this problem across Florence Center Fall 2019 Class Schedule 3149 Oak Street the western United States, Enhance Your Skills, Prepare for a New Career, Pursue Your Inspiration because we have misman- aged fire for more than 100 years.” While this year’s fire sea- son has started out with few major conflagrations, the need for vigilance and the ability to pay for the services of local firefighters and the SVFR as an independent fire district will be enhanced by this change in the funding process. “I hope this legislation will allow us to see more ef- Registration opens Sept. 3 forts placed on preventing Classes start Sept. 30 large wildland fire disas- Register at lanecc.edu/ce ters by managing the fuel loads in our forests before they burn and hopefully supporting local agencies, like SVFR, with funding for training and equipment,” Schick said. “If we can get properly trained and equip local fire agencies on a small fire in a properly managed forest quickly, it can help it from becoming a large di- saster. The men and women of SVFR are very willing to help fight these wildland fires in our area, but it has been difficult to find the funding to make sure they are properly trained and equipped so they can do it safely.” AVAILABLE ONLINE NOW & IN THE SEPTEMBER 4 EDITION OF SIUSLAW NEWS GET YOUR TICKETS! presents H o m e c omin g Gala 2019 A Taste of Tuscany Award-winning singer/songwriter, Halie Lo Loren returns! October 5th, 2019 Florence Events Center Help Us, Help Them! INDIVIDUA TICKETS: $75 INDIVIDUAL A TABLE O OF EIGHT: $600 Tickets can be p purchased at The Club or visit https:/ /bgcwlc.afrogs.org Live Music • Dinner • Auctions