SPRINGFIELD — If you have a record fire season, you need a record response team, and that’s the plan Oregon is moving forward with.
Last week, Senator Ron Wyden and Rep. Val Hoyle gathered at a press conference in Springfield to provide updates around wildfire management
According to Hoyle, Oregon has 23 incident management teams — more than the state has ever needed at one time.
“And we’ve had mega fires earlier than we’ve ever had in the history of our state. Our climate is changing. It is dryer, it is hotter. Our fire season will not end until October,” she said.
In response to this record-breaking fire season, Wyden and Hoyle have been working to cut down on any “unnecessary red tape” that has been slowing fire operations down for next year.
For example: permanentizing the increased firefighter pay, otherwise the state risks losing 30-50% of its wildland firefighters, Hoyle said. Hoyle and Wyden are also hoping to make catering and housing more accessible to firefighters next year.
David Larson, Southern Oregon area director for the Department of Forestry, also gave some insight on fire safety for the public. Although 80% of wildfires are human-caused, they are often unintentional, he said. “It’s car exhaust from your vehicle, it’s maintaining the vehicle driving,” he said. “People gotta stop and think ‘all the activities I do out here, what’s the risk?’”
There are also some steps that homeowners can take to make their homes more fire resistant, like moving flammable vegetation away from the house, or making sure the roof is made out of a fire-resistant material, Larson said.
It’s also good to keep plants trimmed and well-watered within 30 feet of the home, and be sure the address is well marked. Larson said that there are also grants available to help landowners clear out heavier brush through organizations like the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).
“These fires that we have, they’re natural, they’re natural disasters. They affect a lot of people, but they need to be classified the same as we look at tornadoes, hurricanes, floods,” Larson said. “The thing about forestry and fire is that you can’t prevent hurricanes— it’s gonna happen, we don’t have that— but with forestry, you have the opportunity to make a difference and make an impact.”
