wildfires

Oregon County Commissioners Point Out Errors in Wildfire Hazard Map in Statewide Meeting

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The Josephine County Commissioners hosted a meeting today in the Anne Basker Auditorium to allow county commissioners across Oregon to question representatives from the Oregon State University and Oregon Department of Forestry about the draft Wildfire Hazard Map. There were 100 local residents in the meeting which heard comments from commissioners from half of Oregon’s 36 counties which are negatively …

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Husband and Wife Pushback Against the Oregon Wildfire Hazard Map

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Oregonians have until Sunday 5PM on August 18 to submit public comment on the Oregon Wildfire Hazard Map. Did you know that Oregon State University had a lead role in developing this infamous map? https://hazardmap.forestry.oregonstate.edu Your comments must be submitted in writing via email to hazardmap@odf.oregon.gov By way of example, I want you to read comments submitted by a husband …

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Oregonians’ Public Comments Opposing Proposed Wildfire Hazard Map Now More Impactful Than Ever

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Last Saturday, I gave a 20-minute update on the DRAFT Oregon Wildfire Hazard Map. I presented the good and bad news regarding this notorious map. (Video shown below.) Good News The good news is that we can submit written comments in opposition to this map. The deadline is August 18 at 5PM. That was the extent of the good news. …

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Oregon Governor invokes Emergency Conflagration Act for the 8th time this year

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(The Center Square) – Oregon Governor Tina Kotek invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act for the eighth time this year last week. Kotek invoked it on August 1, 2024, responding to the Telephone Fire in Harney County. The governor invokes the act when the necessary resources to protect life and property from a wildfire exceed the capacities of local first responders. “I continue …

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Wildfires Causing Smoky, Unhealthy Conditions In Much of Oregon

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Wildfires burning across much of the western U.S. and Canada are causing smoke to stretch across parts of central, eastern and southern Oregon. In response, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued an air quality alert Monday for Deschutes, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake and Malheur counties. Agency officials also expect intermittent smoke in Crook, eastern Douglas, eastern Lane, Jackson …

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Larch Creek Fire expands as Governor and State Fire Marshal take action

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(The Center Square) – The Larch Creek Fire has expanded to 9,100 acres in size and jumped Highway 197, forcing the highway’s closure. The human-caused fire that’s burning in Wasco County began on Tuesday afternoon near Friend, Oregon, and quickly expanded, according to KATU. The wind and high temperatures have posed a challenge to firefighters responding to the fire. Local firefighters are receiving help from task forces from Clackamas, …

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The SB 762 Wildfire Map Could be the Least of Our Worries

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By Bob Hart It seems like wildfires during the summer have become a way of life in Southern Oregon. But an unexpected “wildfire” was lit in the summer of 2022 with the arrival of letters to thousands of property owners informing them that they were high or extreme risk for wildfires as shown on a newly published map from the …

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SB 762 Disaster Rollout: What Were They Thinking?

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By Julie Niles-Fry I found out about SB 762, the fire map debacle law, through Facebook.  I checked my mail pile for “the letter” from the Oregon Department of Forestry and read the dreaded word: “Extreme.”  My first thoughts came rapid-fire: “Our property is the poster child of fire safe”; “what were the thoughts that created this punitive bill?” “what …

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The People Speak Out and Delay SB 762

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By Richard Emmons In Pixar’s 1998 animated film “A Bug’s Life,” the ants worked hard and served the grasshoppers. One day a single ant questioned the order of things. The grasshopper in charge saw where this might lead: “If you let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up to us. The puny, little ants outnumber …

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