BUSINESS & AG LIFE
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
FIRES
THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2022
SUMMIT
Continued from Page B1
And there’s no signs of
a let-up in conditions that
keep the risk of wildfi res
extremely high. A long-
term “megadrought”
is gripping the region
and scientists forecast
temperatures will keep
rising as more climate-
changing carbon emissions
are pumped into the
atmosphere.
The impact stretches
far beyond the western
U.S. because massive
smoke plumes at the height
of wildfi re season in the
U.S. and Canada spread
the health eff ects across
North America — sending
unhealthy pollution last
summer to major cities
from San Francisco to Phil-
adelphia and Toronto.
For decades the primary
approach to containing
and extinguishing forest
fi res was to try to stamp
them out. The eff orts have
been similar to massive,
military-like campaigns,
including planes, fl eets of
heavy equipment and thou-
sands of fi refi ghting per-
sonnel and support workers
dispatched to the fi re zones.
However, fi res are a part
of the natural cycle for most
forests, so putting them out
leaves stands of trees that
don’t burn surrounded by
dead wood, underbrush
and other highly fl ammable
fuels — a worst-case sce-
nario when blazes ignite.
TEMPS
Continued from Page B1
Rainfall closer to
normal in west, dry
in east
Willamette Valley cities
Portland and Salem were
right about normal in
terms of rainfall. Portland
recorded 35.59 inches,
compared to a normal of
36.88, while Salem got
40.82 inches, slightly
above its normal of 39.92.
Matt Gush/Shutterstock
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, the
U.S. Forest Service will thin more forests and use controlled burns
across the West as a means of reducing the threat of wildfi re.
Critics have said U.S.
agencies are too fi xated on
fi ghting fi res and that trying
to solve the problem by cut-
ting more trees will only
harm the forests. In South
Dakota’s Black Hills, for
example, government biol-
ogists have said that too
many trees dying from a
combination of insects, fi re
and logging have made cur-
rent timber harvest levels
unsustainable.
But Vilsack said a com-
bination of tree thinning
and intentionally set fi res to
clear undergrowth that are
called prescribed burns will
make the forests healthier in
the long run while reducing
the threat to public safety.
Forests thinned near
Lake Tahoe and its tourism
gateway community of
South Lake Tahoe were
credited with slowing the
advance of the massive
Caldor Fire last summer
that destroyed almost 800
homes and prompted evac-
uations of tens of thousands
of residents and tourists.
A similar phenom-
enon played out during
Oregon’s Bootleg fi re last
July, which burned more
than 600 square miles but
did less damage in forest
that was thinned over the
past decade.
“We know this works,”
Vilsack said. “It’s
removing some of the
timber, in a very scientifi c
and thoughtful way, so
that at the end of the day
fi res don’t continue to hop
from treetop to treetop,
but eventually come to
ground where we can put
them out.”
Eugene was drier with
36.10 inches for the year
compared to a normal of
43.92.
On the Coast, Astoria
recorded 77.02 inches
of precipitation, well
above its average of 69
inches. East of the Cas-
cades, Pendleton (9.39
inches) and Bend (6.90
inches) both fi nished with
their 10th driest years on
record.
Medford recorded
16.14 inches of rain, com-
pared to a normal of 18.48
inches.
Oregon’s longstanding
drought is based on two
years of below average pre-
cipitation, a summer that
saw almost no rain and
above normal tempera-
tures that sapped moisture
from the soil. In the future,
Oregon is expected to see
hotter and drier summers
but also wetter and warmer
winters, a trend that was
generally observed this
past year.
ship. Oregon Realtors really
believe that’s important.”
Continued from Page B1
Panelist Chabre Vickers,
vice president and local
Lee noted that $1.2 tril- community develop-
lion of that $3 trillion gap
ment offi cer with Wells
“could be eliminated by
Fargo, said that Orego-
homeownership. So that
nians are doing a fan-
means if a typical Black
tastic job addressing the
home was worth the same
issues through policy,
as a typical white home,
public-private partner-
that would act for about
ships and nonprofi ts. Wells
half of that $1.2 trillion
Fargo has a Neighborhood-
housing inequality measure LIFT down payment assis-
of that wealth gap. If Black tance program that Vickers
homeownership grows
said already has helped
by 30% to be on par with
24,000 Americans become
white homeownership, it
homeowners.
would also close by half —
“Down payment assis-
obviously, those would be a tance is so important when
huge improvement.”
folks need to cross the line,
After Lee’s presenta-
have already worked on
tion, a panel discussed pos- their credit, but don’t have
sible strategies to bridging built-up wealth passed from
the gap.
family. Down payment
assistance is going to make
Increasing access
the diff erence in getting to
to lending
closing,” Vickers said. “We
Panelist Alex Phan,
recognize intentionality is
diversity committee chair
paramount to success. (We
with Oregon Realtors, said need to) elevate the conver-
everything ties back to
sation around exactly what
access to fi nancial literacy we talked about — under-
and simplifying the educa- standing how to increase
tional process.
access to lending.”
Vickers said in the last
“So many communi-
year, the Oregon Bankers
ties of color, a lot of times
Association launched the
depending on households,
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous
don’t have that opportu-
and people of color) Task
nity to learn some of those
Force, which is a group of
critical (fi nancial literacy)
banks coming together to
things,” Phan said. “It all
be intentional about sup-
starts with understanding
credit, how it functions, how porting BIPOC across
we use it to build ourselves the U.S.
Vickers said the program
to the opportunity that
launched with the goal that
we can enter homeowner-
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75% of the homeowners it
helped would be BIPOC
homeowners, and that rate
is currently over 83% — a
success.
“We launched a BIPOC
task force really looking at
how banks as a whole can
come together and impact
and benefi t in particular
BIPOC members across
the state,” Vickers said.
“When you see programs
that are working, under-
standing how to be part of
that and invest early on is
a part of what will help us
get toward our goals. If we
as a group were to look at
that on a pretty deep level,
really understand how we
got there and really consider
the mechanisms of how we
maintain the status quo.”
Vickers said looking at
appraisal equity shown in
Lee’s summit presentation,
in the end, when minority
households want to sell their
property and garner wealth
for their families, the values
come out lower.
“We need to increase
accountability around
credit bureaus, how credit
inhibits access to lending,
and as a fi nancial institu-
tion we need to ask our-
selves how our underwriting
is restricting communities
of color, in particular Black
and Latinos, that would be
homeowners from access to
this lending,” Vickers said.
“There are so many pro-
grams that are working, but
we need to scale them up.”
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