The BulleTin • Friday, July 30, 2021 A5
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
New rules coming
for landowners to
reduce wildfire risk
D
on’t wait before making your home safer from wildfire.
Do it now. Live on the outskirts of town? Do it now. Do
your roof vents have big holes where a drifting spark
can sneak in? Do it now.
Gutters filled with pine needles?
Clean them out. Do it now.
Central Oregon is wildfire coun-
try. This year it’s dry. Last year it was
dry. There’s likely to be more dry
years and higher temperatures com-
ing. You don’t have to look far to the
south to know the devastation of
wildfire: the Bootleg Fire. You don’t
have to look back far in Oregon’s
history to know wildfires can raze a
town — last year 4,000 homes were
burned. We would all be foolish to
think that it just can’t happen here.
So build a defensible space. If you
are not sure what to do, call your fire
department. They know what to do.
State officials are working on cre-
ating rules that may mandate more
Oregon landowners do more. Senate
Bill 762 is the driver. It’s just wait-
ing for Gov. Kate Brown’s signature.
There’s every reason to believe she
will sign it.
As it was introduced, it was a bill
to study wildfire recovery and re-
sponse. It was amended to have
teeth. It requires utilities to have
plans so that the state’s electrical sys-
tem is more wildfire resilient. It also
requires the state work with Oregon
State University to redo the map of
state wildfire risk with five categories
— no risk, low, moderate, high and
extreme. The State Fire Marshal will
establish minimum defensible space
standards. And local governments
could even be more strict.
What is that going to mean for
you? Well if you live in the middle
of Bend, it might not mean much.
But if you live on the edge of town or
in a more rural area, new mandates
are likely coming. We can’t say ex-
actly what they will be because they
are being worked on — including in
meetings next week. Ed Keith, De-
schutes County forester, said there
could be rules for the types of per-
mitted roofs, siding and vents and
also rules about clearing vegetation
within a certain distance of a home.
Once again, though, no rules have
been set yet.
Tim Holschbach, Deputy Chief of
Policy and Planning for the Oregon
Department of Forestry, told us the
plan is to include an appeals process
of some sort if a landowner believes
a property’s wildfire is misclassified.
And once the maps are drawn and
the risk categories are set, landown-
ers will be notified about the state’s
new policy.
You could just wait for the new
rules to come. But remember back
to the Camp Fire that raced through
Paradise, California. Residents lit-
erally had to run for their lives,
sneaker soles melting on pavement.
Have a plan for your family to leave
quickly.
And get out now and create the
defensible space to increase the
chances you will have a home to
come home to. Do it now.
The carbon targets that
may become mandates
R
ather than gazing into a crys-
tal ball or throwing bones, if
you want to know what sort of
climate change policies are coming
to Oregon, you can watch the state’s
Global Warming Commission. It is a
body appointed by the governor and
makes recommendations to help the
state prepare for climate change.
There isn’t a one-for-one,
letter-for-letter translation from
the recommendations of the com-
mission into bills by the state Leg-
islature. Consider this, though, the
goals the commission talked about
in 2011 have in many cases mor-
phed into mandates.
Next week, the commission is
scheduled to meet to discuss goals
for Oregon to sequester more car-
bon in forest, farms and rangelands.
It could be planting more trees in
cities and reforesting other areas. It
It could be planting more trees in
cities and reforesting other areas.
It could be different farm practices
to enhance soil productivity and
keep moisture in.
could be different farm practices to
enhance soil productivity and keep
moisture in.
That will take money, research
and incentives. And to be clear,
the commission is talking about
goals and incentives, not rules and
mandates.
If you are curious enough to get
involved, the commission meet-
ing on Aug. 4 will be livestreamed
starting at 1 p.m. There is more
information here: tinyurl.com/
Oregonwarming.
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor
Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
My Nickel’s Worth
Keeping cool
Why are all agencies reporting on
deaths from our recent extreme wave,
but nobody is spreading the word
about an easy and cheap way to avoid
dying in your apartment?
Just run a cold water bath, jump in
and instant relief! It works best if you
dress in cotton clothing, which when
wet will provide the best evaporation
cooling.
Most of the dead were seniors liv-
ing alone in an apartment without air
conditioning; this simple trick — with
some kind of bulletin provided by so-
cial workers and announced continu-
ously in all news broadcasts — could
have made a difference.
If you are reluctant to sit in cold wa-
ter, several cold (or cool) showers also
help — again, wearing cotton clothing
will increase the evaporation which
cools the body. For homeless people,
unable to get into the Deschutes River,
perhaps plastic kiddie wading pools,
filled by a water truck would have
helped.
I saw no mention of this simple life-
saving trick on any local or statewide
media. Call the governor. Spread the
word. We’ll likely see extreme heat
again as global warming increases.
I first learned of this trick on an old
cop show, “Hill Street Blues.” I knew
that jumping into a river would be
cooling, but not everyone can access
a river. Also, every summer, dozens
of people drown while swimming. It’s
hard to drown in your bathtub.
— Melinda Law, Crooked River Ranch
Opportunity, not equity
Equity sounds good, but it is not
equality. Equity is the call to redis-
tribute assets to those who have not
worked, or do not deserve them.
How does going to school for six or
eight years to become a doctor sound
while incurring $200,000 in debt and
then being told you must give up your
salary to others who deserve it based
on the past injustices of their ancestors?
Sound ridiculous? Because it is.
Let’s scrap this division tactic and get
back to equal opportunity for all.
— Jody Prusi, Bend
Bentz is off target on wildfires
Our Rep. Cliff Bentz has words of
wisdom for us about the tragic wild-
fire losses we are suffering in our state.
“People tend to blame climate
change,” he says, but the “true cause” is
the “amount of wood.” Partisan blam-
ing of someone else’s policies indeed
tends to be much easier than address-
ing climate change or the multiple fac-
tors that scientific analysis can give us.
According to Bryant Baker, con-
servation director of nonprofit Los
Padres ForestWatch, “a history of
commercial logging, thinning, clear
cutting, prescribed fire and other in-
tensive management practices con-
tributed to the Bootleg Fire’s spread.”
Baker does real-time geographic in-
formation system analysis of how
landscapes were historically managed
while wildfires are actively burning
on the land. “I do think this demon-
strates that this kind of focus on re-
moving vegetation from these wild-
lands, especially far away from human
communities, is not doing anything
to prevent these fires from becoming
very large,” he says.
Timothy Ingalsbee, executive direc-
tor of Firefighters United for Safety,
Ethics and Ecology, says that “past
commercial logging and livestock
grazing has encouraged wildfires,”
and notes that “when the fire entered
the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness,
an area with more potential fuel but
fewer small trees and flammable
grasses, it appears to have burned
more slowly.”
There will be more expert opin-
ions to come, but please, Rep. Bentz,
can we use the lens of science to show
leadership and to develop solutions to
prevent disasters? And can we spend
less time trying to run from the real
issues?
— Jean Sullivan Carlton, Bend
The enemy is us
I enjoyed The Bulletin’s delight-
ful coverage of Dick Higgins’ 100th
birthday. As Bend’s Pearl Harbor sur-
vivor, he reminds us of a very differ-
ent time. People in Dick Higgins’ era
recognized the existential danger and
accepted the mission regardless of the
sacrifice.
An article on the inside page spoke
to a projected surge of the coronavi-
rus. While the author seemed intent
on denigrating our governor, I came
away with that old line ringing in my
head, “We have met the enemy, and
it is us.”
Doesn’t it seem like this pandemic
is the critical challenge of our day?
Pick whatever excuse we think justi-
fies our refusal to get vaccinated, to
wear masks, to socially distance, it all
boils down to our inability to set aside
our individual differences or prefer-
ences for the common good. Each of
us has a choice, of course, and our col-
lective future doesn’t look that bright.
How sad!
— Robert Currie, Bend
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Don’t even think of passing Biden’s budget bill now
A
BY MICHAEL R. STRAIN
Bloomberg
s the delta variant continues
to sweep through the U.S., of-
ficials are reimposing mask
mandates and taking other measures
to try to slow the spread. Will the re-
newed threat to public health stall U.S.
economic growth?
I don’t think it will. But the possibil-
ity that it could is another reason for
Congress not to ram through Presi-
dent Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget
proposal, which includes spending
on social programs, education, health
care, families and the environment.
This plan would be on top of the $550
billion bipartisan infrastructure pack-
age that the Senate agreed to advance
on Wednesday night.
The U.S. economy is booming, and
the delta variant likely won’t change
that. While the U.S. is experiencing a
surge in COVID-19 cases, the fatal-
ity rate will likely become similar to
the toll for the seasonal flu, since the
vaccination rates among the elderly
and vulnerable are very high. This, in
turn, will lessen its economic impact
by reducing public concern about fall-
ing seriously ill and making it unlikely
that state and local governments will
revive restrictions on business activity.
Moreover, people who have chosen
not to be vaccinated are probably less
likely to change their everyday be-
havior due to the delta variant’s prev-
alence.
Since the shots are broadly effective
against it, many of those who have
been vaccinated will try to carry on
with normal life as much as possible.
Mask mandates, which could affect
both groups, won’t have a big effect on
the economy.
The experience of the U.K. seems
to confirm this optimism. The vari-
ant’s spread in the U.S. is a few weeks
behind the U.K., where spending and
economic activity are holding up.
This is not to say that the surging
variant poses no threat to the econ-
omy. Children still can’t get vaccinated
and likely won’t be able to for several
months. If school districts temporarily
switch to remote learning due to out-
breaks this fall, then it will be difficult
for many parents to go to work.
The rare cases in which vaccinated
people become seriously ill might
receive more attention than they de-
serve, alarming many people and
prompting governments in some blue
states and cities to reimpose some
limited restrictions on business ac-
tivity.
While I don’t think these threats
will change the economy’s trajectory,
what if I’m wrong and damage to the
economy does materialize? In that
event, Congress may need to step in
again with an economic relief and
stimulus bill.
Because of this possibility, Congress
should keep its powder dry this sum-
mer until there’s more clarity on what
help, if any, is needed. Biden might
not have the political capital for an-
other pandemic relief law this fall if
Congress goes forward with his $3.5
trillion spending bill next month.
The details of the package are still
being worked out, but the outlines
are known. Some components would
provide support against another pan-
demic hit to the economy. For ex-
ample, extra income to households
would boost demand. An analysis
by Moody’s Analytics estimates that
in 2022 the assistance would provide
around $94 billion in tax credits to
families with children and about $15
billion in nutrition and housing assis-
tance to low-income families.
But most of the spending — tax
incentives for clean energy, more
funding for community colleges and
Medicare, universal pre-kindergarten,
provisions for a new paid family and
medical leave program — is poorly
designed to help in the face of a pan-
demic-related economic slowdown.
In the more likely event that the
economy continues to boom during
the delta-variant surge, the extra cash
to households and spending on social
programs would needlessly worsen
inflationary pressures. This would put
the longevity of the recovery at risk if
the Federal Reserve is forced to attend
to inflation and ends up withdrawing
support for the economy prematurely.
Passing the $3.5 trillion pack-
age next month along partisan lines
would be a lose-lose proposition. If
the delta variant only dents the econ-
omy, then the spending would elevate
inflation risk.
And in the unlikely event that it
leads to restrictions on economic ac-
tivity in some areas of the country,
Biden wouldn’t have the political cap-
ital he would need to adequately re-
spond. The president needs to adjust
his plans until we see what happens in
the fall.
e
Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg columnist. He
is director of economic policy studies and Arthur
F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the
American Enterprise Institute.