BUSINESS & AG LIFE
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2021
Experts say more planning, resilience needed to protect against wildfi res
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS — While
the 2021 fi re season isn’t
over yet, experts at Oregon
State University say com-
munities should be plan-
ning ahead to increase
resilience in the face of
future large blazes.
OSU hosted a virtual
forum on Sept. 21 to dis-
cuss ongoing wildfi re
and drought conditions
statewide.
Chris Dunn, an ex-fi re-
fi ghter and fi re science
researcher in the College
of Forestry, said there is
still a risk of sparking new
fi res in Oregon, though the
worst of the season should
be over as temperatures
fall and humidity rises.
“We’re really in that
transition time,” Dunn
said. “All of that helps
to keep fi re behavior
moderated.”
According to the U.S.
Drought Monitor, nearly
all of Oregon remains
mired in “severe” to
“exceptional” drought.
Gov. Kate Brown has
declared a drought emer-
LOANS
Continued from Page B1
general claims, and request
for relief as in the present
case,” she said.
However, the judge said
the Dunlaps can ask to lift
the stay if they opt out of the
class action lawsuit, which
they and other farmers are
trying to do.
The couple are among a
group of 12 farmers who’ve
U.S. Forest Service/Contributed Photo, File
While the 2021 fi re season isn’t over yet, experts at Oregon State University say communities should be
planning ahead to increase resilience in the face of future large blazes.
gency in 25 of Oregon’s 36
counties since late March.
Larry O’Neill, state cli-
matologist with the Oregon
Climate Service — part
of the College of Earth,
Ocean and Atmospheric
Sciences at OSU — said
this year’s historically dry
conditions are a precursor
for what the state can
expect with climate change
going forward.
“The drier conditions
and drought will become
more intense as the climate
warms,” O’Neill said.
Part of that will mani-
fi led a motion to opt out
of the Texas case because
they “should be allowed to
pursue their chosen claims,
with their chosen counsel,
in their chosen forums.”
These farmers argue the
class action complaint more
broadly attacks USDA pro-
grams for alleged racial dis-
crimination while they are
specifi cally targeting the
loan forgiveness program.
The class action lawsuit also
includes diff erent legal theo-
ries, they claim.
“At a minimum, it
reveals key diff erences in
litigation strategy that sup-
port allowing Movants to
opt out,” the motion said.
These farmers argue the
debt relief program violates
the Administrative Proce-
dure Act while the Texas
lawsuit does not, and they
worry the class action will
be subject to delays for rea-
sons their own complaints
would not be.
fest in a shift of seasonal
precipitation, with sum-
mers projected to be drier
and winters becoming
wetter overall, O’Neill said.
“Up in the higher eleva-
tions, we’re going to have
more precipitation fall as
rain rather than snow,” he
RELIEF
Continued from Page B1
doesn’t align with where
we see the value in the
commodity.”
The heat dome that
developed in June scorched
the leaves of nursery crops,
leaving some growers
unable to sell most of
their Japanese maples
or hydrangeas, said Jeff
Stone, executive director of
added. “All of this will
impact a variety of fi re
systems, as well as just
the general ecology of the
area.”
Erica Fischer, an assis-
tant professor in the School
of Civil and Construc-
tion Engineering, said
communities in the wild-
land-urban interface should
assess wildfi re risk and
develop long-term plans
for protecting critical
infrastructure.
She compared the
eff ort to planning that has
already taken place for
communities threatened by
a major earthquake in the
Cascadia Subduction Zone
in the 1990s.
“I think we need to take
a page from that book, and
not reinvent the wheel,”
Fischer said.
Tom DeLuca, dean of
the OSU College of For-
estry, said communities
need to shift their mindset
about fi re being not simply
a disaster, but something
people live with in the
West that is part of the
ecosystem.
“We have to learn how
to live with fi re and build
more fi re-adapted commu-
nities,” he said.
{p class=”p1”}At the
same time, he said, land
management agencies
should be focused on strat-
egies to make landscapes
more fi re-resilient.
James Johnston, a
research associate in the
College of Forestry who
studies historical and con-
temporary fi re patterns
across the Pacifi c North-
west, said more can be
done using prescribed fi re
to eliminate a backlog of
forest fuels that are driving
larger, more destructive
wildfi res.
On a larger spacial and
temporal scale, Johnston
said the only way to fi ght
fi re is with fi re.
“There’s got to be a
much larger role for fi res
that we start,” Johnston
said.
Dunn echoed that senti-
ment, saying that while fi re
is inevitable in the West,
land managers can do more
to lessen their severity.
“Our choice now is what
fi re do we want?” Dunn
said. “And we do have
agency in that.”
the Oregon Association of
Nurseries.
“The trees are techni-
cally not dead but they’re
not salable,” he said. “You
can try to rehabilitate a
tree or a plant but it’s not
ready for a customer.”
Conservatively, nurs-
eries expect to lose $50
million in sales due to the
heat wave, he said. “117
degrees (Fahrenheit) will
harm a plant no matter
what you do.”
Pay-outs from the
USDA’s livestock forage
program have proven
insuffi cient for ranchers
whose rangeland suff ered
from the drought, Cooper
said.
The program compen-
sates for roughly 60% of
the value of forage, but
that’s generally a low
amount for rangeland com-
pared to irrigated pastures
that aren’t common in the
West, she said.
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