Targeting forests for fire reform

As Oregon heads into another hot weekend, Oregon House Republicans are calling on the state Legislature to reform forest management and logging policies they say would prevent large fires from starting and spreading.

In a letter sent Wednesday, Republican Reps. Jeff Helfrich of Hood River, Ed Diehl of Stayton, and E. Werner Reschke of Klamath Falls said lawmakers should roll back regulations and conservation plans to allow more logging on state forests, limit liabilities for volunteer firefighters who might cause injury or property damage while on the job and prohibit and sweep homeless encampments in fire-prone areas.

“We all support responsible environmental practices that protect our forests for future generations,” said Reschke in a statement. “But these fires are the result of 40 years of bad policy choices that have gone past conservation and put the lives of Oregonians at risk.”

About 1,650 wildfires this season have burned a record of more than 1.5 million acres in Oregon. But about 75% were not in forests but across grass and shrubland in eastern Oregon, according to the Wildland Mapping Institute.

The Republicans also called out the state’s landmark Western State Forests Habitat Conservation Plan that was narrowly approved by the Oregon Board of Forestry in March after years of negotiation, saying it has “prevented responsible logging in much of the state.” The plan, which has not been fully implemented and is still awaiting federal approval, would reduce logging by about 20% in 14 western Oregon counties for the next 70 years to protect 17 threatened or endangered species.

“Oregon’s war on the timber industry must end,” the Republicans wrote. “The logging industry plays a vital role in clearing out deadwood and decreasing the severity of fires. Seven sawmills have closed this year due to anti-business policies. Republicans support reforming burdensome regulations while treating the lumber industry as partners in conservation.”

Forests one piece of the puzzle

In response, Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, and chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire, told the Capital Chronicle in an email that he’s heartened his Republican colleagues want to take on wildfire policy, but he said calling for regulatory rollbacks on logging in Coast Range forests is not the solution.

“It’s true that better forest management is one piece of the puzzle. At the same time, it’s vital to base wildfire strategies on careful thinking and good science. Broad-brushed claims that more commercial logging will reduce our risk don’t clear that bar,” Golden said.

He added that forests that pose the greatest wildfire hazards are typically in parts of the state with dry, brush-filled areas and generally not in areas with commercially valuable timber. Those stands, often in western Oregon, tend to withstand and survive fires without making them more intense, according to Golden.

“If the goal is reducing mega-fires, decisions about increased logging have to hinge on the fuel characteristics and topography of specific sites, not a generalized belief that fewer trees = less fire,” he said.

A multi-year study of forest treatments such as commercial thinning and prescribed fire across Western states found wildfire only occurs on about 1% of treated forests, and that it’s largely ineffective, because those treatments last only about 10 to 20 years before fuels grow back. Studies have shown thinning and prescribed burning around homes and cities can be effective at keeping wildfires from moving quickly into communities.

The Republicans also called on disbanding homeless encampments near wildfire prone areas, saying some wildfires in Oregon have started because of these encampments. Nicholas Poche, a spokesperson for the House Republicans cited the 78-acre Mile Marker 132 fire near Bend and the Darlene 3 fire near La Pine this summer as two fires that investigators suspect were started at homeless encampments.

Most wildfires are caused by humans, according to the Portland-based Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, but this year the bulk of fires have started from natural causes, such as lightning.

Two bills

The Republicans also called for more support for firefighters through two bills they proposed in 2023 that did not go anywhere. One, House Bill 2491, would have limited civil liabilities for any injuries or property damage caused by volunteer wildfire fighters while at work. The other, House Bill 2953, would have allowed the Oregon Department of Forestry to set the procedures for fighting fires on federal lands within the state. The Republicans lamented in their letter that neither bill received a hearing during the 2023 Legislative session.

The Oregon Department of Forestry already has cooperative agreements with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to collaborate on wildfire fighting, including procedures for federal land. Federal agencies reimburse the Oregon Department of Forestry for its work on those fires.

Golden said he brought leaders from the Oregon Department of Forestry to a hearing on a meeting on House Bill 2953 last summer, to explain to legislators that the bill was redundant and that cooperation procedures already existed.

Still, Golden said, he agrees overall with his Republican colleagues’ call for more support for firefighters and more financial support for wildfire prevention and response.

“To make that real, I hope they’ll join me in pushing for more reliable and adequate sources of wildfire funding, which is a politically difficult conversation,” he said.

Golden has proposed reintroducing a tax on the value of timber harvests – the severance tax – to fund wildfire prevention and response in the state. Reporting from the Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica found counties lost at least $3 billion in revenue in the three decades since the timber severance tax was eliminated in Oregon in the early 1990s.

“I know my colleagues feel deeply about this issue and the need to protect their communities. We all do. So I’m hoping we can all commit to the kind of dialogue that moves us towards solutions rather than stalemate,” Golden said.

Helfrich also called for bipartisan cooperation.

“The Legislature should make a good-faith, bipartisan effort to reform its forestry management approach to better balance safety and concern for the environment. Doing so will benefit all those who live under the risk of wildfires,” Helfrich said in a statement.