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Hello Friends,
I have scheduled two town hall meetings to take place in late November. The first will be Monday, November 27 in room 132 of the RCC/SOU Higher Education Center at 101 South Bartlett Road in Medford from 6 to 8 p.m. My second town hall meeting will take place Tuesday, November 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, located at 87 4th Street in Ashland. I encourage you to attend and ask any questions you may have about the upcoming short session or any other legislative matters.
Oregon’s
devastating 2017 fire season may be fading into memory with the onset of
seasonal rains, but efforts are underway to try and prevent such catastrophes
in the future.
I
spent most of this week in Salem for the latest round of interim committee
meetings taking place before the start of the next legislative session in
February. Among the meetings I attended was one for the recently formed Fire
Caucus, which consists of Senators and Representatives from both major
political parties whose districts collectively cover much of the state.
We
learned that there were 11 fires of 10,000 acres or more this last summer. This
had obvious impacts on public health, as well as the economies of many
communities.
The
Fire Caucus and its members talked about the need to reforest the areas that
burned as quickly as possible to restore the health of those forests. There is
also recognition of the need to develop plans to keep these scenarios from reoccurring,
as they seem to be doing more and more often.
In
a previous
newsletter, I discussed the success of the Ashland Forest Resilience Stewardship
Project and how that could be used as a model for further collaborations to
reduce the risk of wildfires. Selective thinning can be a key component of
eliminating fuels for these fires and limit their intensity. This approach also
removes the profit motive for timber companies to cut larger, older trees.
Another
topic of the Fire Caucus meeting was the desire for the Oregon Department of
Forestry (ODF) to be the first responders for these fires. That agency, and its
officials and personnel, has a good understanding of prevention policies and
tends to have a faster response than the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). However,
the USFS can still play a vital role in backing up ODF firefighters when they
undertake these dangerous and difficult tasks.
The
Fire Caucus will hold its next meeting in January, when the Legislature and its
various committees is scheduled to meet again. I will continue to attend these
meetings and working towards creating and developing policies that will keep
our skies clear of the smoke that was so prevalent in the Rogue Valley and
elsewhere in the state this last summer.
Yours truly,
Sen. Alan DeBoer
Senate District 3
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1703
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-421, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: sen.AlanDeBoer@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/deboer
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