No Plan Now Will Help With Upcoming Wildfire Season, Merkley Says

With wildfire season just around the corner, or in some locations across the PNW already here, some state and federal leaders question whether Oregon has all the necessary resources to respond.  Meteorologist John Saltenberger, with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, said the region could be in for a tough fire season.

“Warmer and drier than typical is the most likely scenario for much of the west, especially over the Pacific Northwest.”

He and other state and federal agencies briefed Senator Jeff Merkley on what to expect this summer, with several expressing concern about cuts proposed in the House budget bill.  The USDA’s has announced plans to increase logging on federal forestland, as part of a plan to reduce fire risk.  Oregon’s junior senator has his doubts.

“I think it’s safe for me to say that there is no plan that could be implemented right now that would help in terms of this coming fire season," Merkely said.  "Good forest management planning, where you thin forests, you do prescribed burns, you reduce the amount of shrubbery, those things can help a lot, done carefully in the right types of forests in the right ways. But that’s actually what was interrupted by the administration earlier this year."

While there are fewer federal incident management teams this summer, Oregon’s Department of Forestry says its teams are fully staffed.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail glenn.vaagen@townsquaremedia.com