Kotek said the summer fire season has already been unprecedented and expensive, and called on Congress to stop playing politics with wildfire resources
By Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle
Oregon’s summer fire season has been unprecedented in the number of acres burned and it’s cost hundreds of millions of dollars and is far from over, according to Gov. Tina Kotek and state and federal officials.
“I know it might feel like the season has kind of subdued a little bit, but there are 6,500 individuals across the Pacific Northwest still fighting these wildfires,” Kotek said at a press conference Thursday, flanked by wildfire officials at the Portland headquarters of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which coordinates fire resources. She asked residents to be cautious over the hot Labor Day weekend. A majority of wildfires are caused by humans.
Officials will monitor conditions during the weekend and they’re optimistic, but Kotek noted the weather can change rapidly.
“I think we’re all feeling good a little bit about the humidity, and the rain we’ve been having, but the conditions are still dry. A day of rain is not going to solve this problem,” she said.
Kotek said the state has learned a lot about wildfire prevention and coordinating wildfire response since the Labor Day fires of 2020 that killed 11 people, burned more than 4,000 homes and became the largest and most expensive natural disaster in Oregon history.
There’s been far less damage to homes and buildings from the more than 1,650 fires that have burned this summer: 32 homes have been lost and 99 outbuildings, such as sheds and barns. More than 1.5 million acres have burned across the state, a new record and nearly three times as many acres as the state’s 10-year average. The bulk of the wildfires have burned through east Oregon grass and shrub, with about 25% of it in forestland, according to the Wildland Mapping Institute. More than one-third of all acres burned have been on private land, and about 62% has been on federal land. Most wildfires are caused by humans, according to the interagency coordination center, but this year the bulk of fires have started from natural causes, such as lightning.
The wildfires prompted Kotek to declare a statewide emergency and ask for federal help and regulatory flexibility for farmers and ranchers. She’s invoked the Conflagration Act 13 times this year.
The cost of fighting the fires is draining state coffers. Spending on wildfires has topped nearly $250 million this summer, drawing from the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office. The Department of Forestry has spent about 2.5 times its firefighting budget this summer and will rely on reserve funding from the Legislative Emergency Board in September to make sure bills are paid, Kotek said.
“We’ll deal with the bills later, but people need to get paid,” she said.
She said the Legislature would solve long-term funding issues in the upcoming Legislative session starting January. A wildfire funding work group has been meeting for months to come up with proposals to submit to state leaders.
She urged Congress to pass a spending bill to fully fund federal agencies and offer a pay increase to wildfire fighters. That bill, the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2025, passed the House but with add ons — such as a 20% cut to the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency — that are likely to kill it in the Senate.
Kotek said Congress should not “play politics with our firefighting resources.”
“We need our federal agencies to have the staffing, to have the resources they need to come and be partners to fight these wildfires. And so I would hope that Congress doesn’t play games with this budget,” she said.
Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.
