A6
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
FIRE
REFORM
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
Now, Hessburg said, that
patchwork has filled in. In-
stead of fires that burn one
tree stand and stop at the next
meadow or that remain on the
ground below the tree cano-
pies, the additional fuel cre-
ates hotter fires that climb into
the treetops and burn from one
to the next unimpeded in the
dense stands.
“We’ve got to deal with
these forests,” Walden said.
A version of the Resilient
Federal Forests Act has passed
the House each of the last four
years. It focuses on measures
to speed up the pace of resto-
ration, providing categorical
exclusions for certain projects
to expedite environmental re-
view.
Projects that would qual-
ify for categorical exclusion
include hazardous fuels re-
duction, salvaging dead trees,
protecting watersheds or im-
proving wildlife habitat. The
bill caps project sizes at 10,000
acres, or 30,000 acres if they
are developed by a multi-inter-
est collaborative group.
The bill also directs the
Secretary of Agriculture to
establish a pilot program to
resolve lawsuits filed against
forest management through ar-
bitration, rather than heading to
court, and would prevent plain-
tiffs from recovering their attor-
ney fees in such cases under the
Equal Access to Justice Act.
Opponents of the legisla-
tion, however, claim it would
severely undermine environ-
mental review and cater to the
interests of the timber industry.
Steve Pedery, conservation di-
rector for Oregon Wild, de-
The cause
The current conditions
were not caused by a single
factor, Hessburg said, but a
variety of changes through the
years that have culminated in
today’s megafires.
Before European settle-
ment, Hessburg said American
Indians would intentionally
light fires in spring and fall.
These first prescribed fires
helped prevent larger blazes
during the summer, he said.
In the mid-1800s, he said,
European immigrants began
grazing cattle, which reduced
frequent fires by reducing
grasses. With railroads came
unintentional fire breaks that
stopped the spread of low-in-
tensity fires, he said.
After the Big Burn in Wash-
ington, Idaho and Montana
in 1910 that burned 3 million
acres and killed 87 people,
Hessburg said fire became
“public enemy No. 1.”
These and other factors
preventing small fires, coupled
with a lack of understanding
of the important role of fire on
the forest, “worked together to
create the current epidemic of
trees, more trees than the land-
scape can support,” Hessburg
said.
The tree density not only in-
creases the risk of fires, he said,
but also makes the forest more
susceptible to damage from in-
The Canyon Creek Complex fire explodes just across
the valley from Prairie City on Aug. 26, 2015.
sects and disease.
But with current climate
conditions, increasing tempera-
tures and drought, Hessburg
said forests are primed to burn.
Current fire seasons are
40-80 days longer than they
were 50 years ago, he said, and
even the most conservative es-
timates for the future are dire.
The solution
Despite the difficulties
ahead, Hessburg said there are
tools and options available to
mitigate some of the risks.
He said, while wildfires
are inevitable — and, in fact,
necessary for many species of
plants and animals — main-
taining fire-adapted communi-
ties, ensuring safe, effective fire
responses and creating fire-re-
silient landscapes would help
reduce the damage.
“We can restore much of
the power of that patchwork,”
he said.
With more homes being
built in treed areas adjacent to
forests — known as the wild-
land urban interface — Hes-
sburg said it is important for
communities to be prepared for
wildfires. Organizations such
as Firewise, which has several
local communities participat-
ing, provide free help to people
who are interested.
To create resilient forests
by reducing fuels and return-
ing the land to more natural
conditions, prescribed burning
and logging — or mechanical
thinning — are two of the best
options, he said, but both face
opposition.
After clearcut logging of the
past, he said many are “timid”
about thinning projects, despite
the fact current sustainable
logging practices are far more
ecologically sound. Logging
reduces the fuel load while
providing an economic benefit
to the communities that house
Forest Service employees.
Prescribed burning allows
forest managers to reintro-
duce fire on the landscape in a
low-intensity setting, providing
the benefits of fire similar to
when the forest was a patch-
work of stands and meadows
with less risk of catastrophic
crown fires.
However, prescribed fires
can only be ignited when
weather conditions are expect-
ed to be safe and conducive to
the operation, and even when
those conditions are met, state
smoke management goals of-
ten prevent prescribed fires
from being permitted. Hes-
sburg said prescribed burns
are regulated as a controllable
nuisance because the smoke
can exacerbate health prob-
lems, but when the much larger
wildfires inevitably erupt, the
smoke is far worse.
“There’s no future without
lots of fire and smoke,” he
said. “How do you want your
fire? How do you want your
smoke? How do you want
your forests in the future?”
DRIVING
Continued from Page A1
offender who did not cause
a crash would face a Class B
violation, with a presumptive
fine of $260 but a maximum
fine of $1,000. Those first-time
offenders could have their fine
suspended if they complete a
course of safety classes within
four months, but the violation
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
scribed the bill as a wish list for
timber lobbyists.
“It’s really about maxi-
mizing the profits of logging
corporations over the health of
our public lands, and the ability
for Americans to enjoy them,”
Pedery said.
Specific to Eastern Oregon,
the Resilient Federal Forests
Act would allow logging of
trees more than 21 inches
in diameter. Individual for-
est management plans would
also no longer be subject to
the National Environmental
Protection Act — the Blue
Mountains Forest Plan, which
includes the Umatilla, Wal-
lowa-Whitman and Malheur
forests, is 13 years overdue for
its latest revision.
Speaking Sept. 14 to the
House Energy and Commerce
Committee, Walden urged
support for the bill as a means
to jump-start forestry reform.
“Year after year, we have
catastrophic wildfires on fed-
eral lands, some of which have
been set aside and managed in
a way that they have no man-
agement,” Walden said. “So if
you want to do something that
is extraordinarily important,
join us in reforming the way
we manage our precious pub-
lic lands and federal forests to
reduce the fuel loads.”
As for fire borrowing, a bi-
partisan group of senators has
introduced the Wildfire Disas-
ter Funding Act to ensure the
firefighting budget does not eat
into the fire prevention budget,
and allow projects to proceed
with greater financial resources.
In the same joint statement
with Wyden, Merkley said it
is time to reverse what has be-
come a vicious cycle.
“The way we fund wildfire
suppression today is counter-
productive and crazy,” Merkley
said. “As this fire season has
proven all too vividly, robbing
from forest health and fire pre-
vention programs to pay for
suppression only creates a vi-
cious cycle of bigger and big-
ger fires.”
The bill would work by
capping the firefighting bud-
get at the most recent 10-year
average, with any additional
funding for fighting wildfires
coming from federal disaster
relief coffers. That would place
wildfires more in line with oth-
er natural disasters, such as the
hurricanes that have devastat-
ed parts of Texas and Florida.
Supporters include oth-
er Western lawmakers from
across the political aisle, in-
cluding Idaho Republicans
Mike Crapo and Jim Risch;
Colorado Republican Cory
Gardner and Democrat Mi-
chael Bennet; California
Democrat Dianne Feinstein;
Washington Democrat Maria
Cantwell; and Utah Republi-
can Orrin Hatch.
will stay on their record.
Second-time offenders face
a Class A traffic violation, on
par with driving more than 30
miles per hour over the speed
limit and carrying a presump-
tive fine of $435 but a maxi-
mum of $2,000. Any additional
violations become a Class B
misdemeanor, resulting in a
criminal record for the perpe-
trator and up to a $2,500 fine
and six months in jail.
There are a few exemptions
to the rules. A person can call
9-1-1 while driving during a
emergency if there is no one
else in the vehicle who can
make the call. Drivers can also
use a single touch to activate
a hands-free device. School
bus drivers, commercial truck
drivers, emergency responders
and utility workers can use a
two-way handheld radio in the
scope of their employment.
Church Services In Grant County
Come Worship with us at