In a public hearing held a day ahead of a special legislative session on Dec. 11, Sweet Home Fire Chief Nick Tyler testified to the growing need for wildfire funding and support.
A Joint Interim Special Committee on Wildfire Funding heard Chief Tyler’s testimony alongside his counterpart, Chiloquin Fire and Rescue Chief Mike Cook, in Salem. The committee met to address a needed Wildfire Appropriation Bill to help pay toward debts incurred this wildfire season.
Chief Tyler shared his experience being accustomed to large scale conflagration fires in eastern Oregon, but over time seeing them pop up in the southern and western parts of Oregon, as well.
“This is a significant indication that wildfires are impacting more and more Oregonians,” he said, adding that area agencies are increasingly spending their resources to assist other communities.
SHFAD was able to assist with outside fires this year, thanks to a grant from the Oregon State Fire Marshall, Chief Tyler noted, suggesting that Sweet Home could not continue assisting outside fires if OSFM cannot provide funding for it. As OSFM and other agencies face funding Wdeficits for increasing fires, communities like Sweet Home are at risk for not receiving the help they may need some day.
Gov. Tina Kotek held a special legislative session on Dec. 12 to address $350 million in outstanding bills owed from the 2024 wildfire season that saw more than 2,000 fires burning 1.9 million acres throughout the state. Oregon Capital Chronicle reported that about 64% of burned land this year was on federal land, while 2% was on state land, and more than one-third of all acres burned were on private land.
During the special session, legislators approved a Wildfire Appropriation Bill to pay $218 million from the general fund toward firefighting efforts. The Oregon Department of Forestry will receive $191.5 million, while the OSFM will receive $26.6 million. The funding is expected to provide a bit of relief while agencies wait for disaster relief funding and reimbursements from the federal government.
During Wednesday’s public hearing, Representative Bobby Levy shared her grief over the devastating fires in recent years, adding a side note, “I think it’s unconscionable that the federal government doesn’t pay their bills.”
Chief Cook told the committee that the number of man-made fires over the last few years has increased. Committee members also noted that mitigation seems to be helping prevent wildfires, and Senator Bill Hansell pointed out that Oregon finds itself often fighting fires that break out on federal land where no fuel reduction mitigation efforts have been made.
“By the time they reach the border to either state or private (land), they’re major fires that we can’t put out,” Sen. Hansell said. “I’m hoping that federal policy will begin to change that we can work with them because the forests know no boundaries between who owns them, but they have boundaries of who manages them and how they’re managed.”
Rep. Levy concurred, saying federal fire fighters have told state and city agencies to leave fires on federal land alone.
“We gotta figure out a way to make that work,” Rep. Levy said. “It doesn’t work for the state of Oregon anymore.”