Merkley, Wyden Announce $9.4 Million Federal Investment to Confront Wildfire Threats in Oregon

Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced today that $9.4 million is coming to Oregon to reduce wildfire threats in high-risk areas across the state.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is directly investing $9,422,722 in three of Oregon’s national forests to treat areas of high wildfire risk where forests and grasslands meet homes and communities. This funding is part of the USDA Forest Service’s (USFS) Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program, which enables national forests — in collaboration with Tribes, communities, and partners — to reduce wildfire risk for communities, critical infrastructure, and natural resources.

Additionally, $345,000 is heading to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area in Washington state for its Tribal Co-Stewardship and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Project. This project is expected to benefit Oregon as well, through fostering co-stewardship of fire-adapted ecosystems that have been home to Indigenous peoples since time immemorial.

“Oregonians know all too well the threat of climate chaos, which is fueling increasingly frequent and severe wildfires that threaten our homes, businesses, and way of life,” said Merkley, who serves as chair of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Forest Service. “This critical investment by the Forest Service will reduce wildfire risk and improve forest resiliency in Oregon and across America. I will keep working to ensure the federal government does its part to protect our lands from the threat of catastrophic wildfires and provide greater resources to wildland firefighters.”

“With a record amount of acreage in Oregon already burned this year by wildfires, this fresh federal investment to reduce the risk of future blazes is welcome news,” dijo Wyden. “Protecting lives and property from these destructive wildfires demands an all-out approach, and these federal funds from the Inflation Reduction Act that I worked to pass provide an essential and proactive piece of that approach. I’ll keep battling for similar resources that focus just as smartly and tightly on wildfires throughout Oregon.”

These federal funds support new and expanded efforts under the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy to invest $100 million across 14 states and 21 projects, thanks to the landmark Ley de Reducción de la Inflación. Information about the Oregon-based projects can be found below:

1. $4.89 million for the Umpqua National Forest’s Elk Tribal and Community Healthy Forest Restoration Project. This project will restore forest health using prescribed fire and construct strategic fuel breaks in the Elk Creek Watershed of the Umpqua National Forest. This watershed is a patchwork of private, Tribal, and Federal lands with several underserved communities. Building on existing collaboration between the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and the Forest Service, this project will continue ecosystem restoration efforts while expanding collaboration with the Tribe, the Oregon Department of Forestry, and other partners.            
2. $4.4 million for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest’s Grayback Creek Watershed Ecological Restoration and Wildfire Risk Reduction Project. This investment will support strategic planning and forest restoration efforts, community engagement and collaboration, and workforce development in a critically important landscape of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The project area is in a landscape with conifer forests that have mostly not experienced wildfire in at least 125 years, leading to critically high levels of dead and live vegetation and high departures in forest structure and composition. The efforts in this project will help reduce wildfire risk, link together both past and future landscape restoration projects, and support local communities through collaborative engagement and workforce development.
3. $132,722 for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest’s Sufferin Springs Heritage Surveys. This investment will support critical heritage surveys that will enable completion of the Sufferin Springs Project environmental analysis in the La Grande Ranger District of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Once the environmental analysis is completed, work could begin to restore forest health, reduce wildfire risk to natural resources and communities, and provide economic benefits to the local economy.

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