***Edited*** – Congressman Walden’s push for forest management information received.
We have been working on both these pieces of legislation for some time, since I served you as your County Commissioner. I do have some issues with both pieces of legislation and believe we could do better for our residents impacted by fire, and our rural communities economically, but this is a good start.
I do appreciate the efforts, of both Congressman Walden and Senator Wyden. If there was a time for Congress to come together on Policy that would help rural Oregon, our communities and their residents, it is now and these two pieces of legislation are it.
We will continue the collaborative work with our colleagues across the State to address USFS Fire Fighting Policy on Federal Land that “manages” fire, rather than “fights” fire, receive the necessary resources for our impacted communities and their residents, as well as desperately needed changes to the failed forest resource management policies that ultimately lead to these catastrophic fires that destroy communities and their surrounding environment. Thank you.
From Congressman Greg Walden:
Enough Fire. Enough Smoke
Enough is enough. When Cycle Oregon and performances at the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland get canceled because of fires and the toxic smoke, it’s long past time for Congress to address how federal forests are managed and how fires are fought (or not), including policies that affect firefighting in wilderness areas.
When people in Central Oregon, the Gorge (or just about anywhere on the east side this summer) are told to stay inside, it’s time for a change in federal policy so that decisions to let fires burn include a review of how doing so will add carbon and toxic pollutants into the atmosphere, threaten habitat and water quality and destroy private timberlands and property.
It’s also time for the U.S. Senate to stop blocking our bipartisan legislation that has passed overwhelmingly in the House year-after-year which would help prevent catastrophic forest fires by allowing proper management. Further, the bill would provide resources to clean up after forest fires and restore the forests with new trees for another generation.
The House Resources Committee has once again approved legislation– the Resilient Federal Forests Act–that solves the fire borrowing problem, but more importantly, gives foresters and firefighters new tools to help protect our forests, watersheds and airsheds from the kinds of disasters we endured this summer. I know we’re always going to have fires, but we must find better ways to control and extinguish them.
Soon the House will take up this measure and send it to the Senate. I’m convinced President Trump will sign it into law if only we can get it to his desk.
https://www.facebook.com/repgregwalden/posts/1523967957648887
Senator Wyden
For Immediate Release: Sept. 5, 2017
Wyden Pushes Trump Administration to Support Wildfire Funding Fix in Disaster Aid for Hurricane Harvey
Washington, D.C. – After the governors of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and California declared states of emergency from wildfires ripping across the West, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today pushed the Trump administration to include wildfire funding fix in any request to Congress for disaster aid.
Wyden has repeatedly pushed Congress to pass a wildfire fix and reform the way the federal government fights wildfires. Wyden and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, first introduced in 2013 the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act. A similar wildfire funding fix was included in July in legislation under consideration by the Senate Banking Committee to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program.
Both approaches would end the cycle of underfunding fire suppression that currently forces federal agencies to steal from fire prevention to fight fires. They would also end “fire borrowing” by funding the largest wildfires from a similar disaster account used to fund other natural disasters.
“Right now hundreds of thousands of acres are burning across Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, and Utah. More than 7.65 million acres of forests have burned this year alone,” Wyden wrote in a letter to Trump.
“As the long recovery begins in Houston and the surrounding areas, I ask that you also include a wildfire funding fix in any disaster aid request you send to Congress,” Wyden wrote.“It is long past time to address the ongoing, devastating natural disaster of wildfires raging across western states.”
In an August letter to the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee, Wyden, along with Sens. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., urged the Senate to work to pass a wildfire funding fix similar to the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act in legislation under consideration by the Senate Banking Committee to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the risk of flooding after wildfires is“significantly higher” for up to five years after a wildfire. Wildfires increase the risk of floods and flash flooding by wiping out trees, shrubs and other plants that allow soil to absorb rainfall and snowmelt.
https://kobi5.com/…/congressman-walden-calls-for-proper-fo…/