 * “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
—Helen Keller
June 1, the official opening of fire season, has arrived more gently than in recent years: less hot and dry, with a fresh taste of late spring. Kind of the way things used to be. Moderate temperatures and more April/May rain than we expected softened the landscape and helps us remember why we like living here so much. The wildflowers made it all the way into June and most reservoirs retain higher levels than expected as summer approaches. Maybe…maybe?…this summer will be less of a struggle than the last few.
Even if it is, we know that a single spring’s welcome rain won’t reverse the drying and heating trends of recent years. Southern Oregon’s landscape has changed and planning for wildfire will be part of our way of life for as long as anyone can foresee. Right now, as we step into summer, is an especially important moment for that planning.
Our last newsletter was a collection of good wildfire resources, here. An especially helpful one right now is “Keeping Your Home and Property Safe from Wildfire,” a guide from the OSU Extension Service. This is a valuable booklet. It reminds us that some of the steps we can take to markedly reduce fire risk in and around our homes are relatively easy and inexpensive.
Some protective measures get more involved than that. A lot of the recent talk about “defensible space” (see pages 3-4 of the booklet) overstates what kind of regulations might be pending. One of the fears I hear is that we’ll have to remove mature trees next to our homes. That’s not what this program's about, because that’s not the kind of fuel that accelerates fire. But to reduce flame transmission, limbs that touch the building or overhang its roof may have to be pruned, maybe more heavily than you’d like to see.
 This takes us straight into one of the most contentious parts of the wildfire program. It needs honest talk. People who are lucky enough to live amidst nice vegetation—I’m one—want to protect what we have. That’s a key factor as new defensible space rules or requirements take hold. It means leaning as far as we can towards voluntary measures, and making sure any regulations are grounded in fire science and clearly important for reducing fire transmission.
Let’s be sure to keep in mind why we’re doing all this in the first place. It’s a fact that we’ve moved into an era of mega-fire that annihilates vast forest landscape and destroys cities and towns. It’s a fact that projections of summer temperatures and forest health tell us that conditions won’t improve anytime soon. It’s a fact that fire seasons at this scale cost billions of dollars and incalculable human suffering. It’s a fact that a major portion of those fires start with human activity in the “ignition zone” surrounding our homes and other buildings, and that vegetation and building materials become a wick that rapidly spreads intense fire; Phoenix and Talent are only the latest on a growing list of examples.
That’s the right backdrop for the conversation of how far government should go to require fire-wise maintenance of vegetation on private property. As we continue to strive for the best balance between property rights and protecting our communities, we have to remember what’s at stake.
 This 2018 map isn’t current, but gives a general picture of statewide wildfire risk.
I’m dwelling on this issue now for a reason. At the core of SB 762, the omnibus Wildfire Bill, is a map that assigns every property in Oregon to one of five categories of wildfire risk; the top two, extreme and high, are properties where building, defensible space and safety requirements might apply. After a year of work by the Department of Forestry and OSU, this map will be released to the public in a couple of weeks. Sometime after that, thousands of letters will go out to notify Oregonians that their property is in the extreme- or high-risk zone and might fall under new sets of rules. We don’t yet know exactly what that means, because those rules are still being drafted and prepared for public comment.
Some of us in Jackson County will receive these letters. Don’t be too alarmed if you do. A lot of deliberation and citizen input still lies ahead as we roll out this unprecedented program to keep our state from burning down, and there will be state resources to help people reduce risk on their property.
Before the notification letters go out, I hope to send out more detailed information on the implications and options for property owners in those top two risk zones. What’s critical is to remember on every step of this new path is that this isn’t a crisis that government can solve. Tired as the phrase may sound, we really are all in this together.
A few words on a couple of huge national stories that broke since my last newsletter and what they might mean for Oregon’s next legislative session.
That’s Question #1 in the wake of the Buffalo and, more intensely, Uvalde, Texas shootings. Most people can’t abide the notion that government might do little or nothing for gun safety after that kind of carnage.
What about legislation in the 2023 session? We should at least cover the ground that’s become politically accessible these past few weeks: strong red flag laws, more effective and leak-proof background checks (possibly enhanced for minors), raising the purchase age for firearms to 21. And there’s no question that we have to keep investing in critical mental health services.
From there it gets harder. The next step is bans, or tight restrictions, on different kinds of hardware, beginning with ammunition clips over a certain capacity and kits to enable rapid firing. Many want to go to full bans of anything in the rapid-fire or military-grade realm. I’ll measure those proposals through the lens of sound data on whether they’d actually reduce the frequency with which violently disturbed people get their hands on hyper-lethal weapons; I want to know what works. One thing we need along the way is knowledgeable input from responsible gun owners—and there are a lot of them—who are as appalled as anyone else by the most recent shootings. Since Uvalde I’ve started conversations that point to the possibility of coalitions we haven’t had before. More to come.
The second big story is the leak of the draft Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade and drop abortion-related policy back into the lap of state governments. That’s not likely to change much in Oregon; we have the Reproductive Health Equity Act, passed in 2017. I support it and will stand up against efforts to roll it back. We’re in hazardous times when it comes to basic rights around reproductive health care and sexual orientation. Falling backwards would hurt a lot of people.
I welcome your views on the direction the legislature should take on gun safety and reproductive rights policy. Write me at sen.jeffgolden@oregonlegislature.gov
How have things gone since we secured $25 million in a 2021 special session to confront big-time criminal cannabis growers in the Rogue Valley? The story’s mixed. $5 million of the total promptly went to the state’s Water Resources Department, which funded three new assistant watermasters to Southern Oregon to deal with water theft and misuse. Three more are on the way.
The other $20 million went for direct grants to sheriff’s offices in the critical counties. We expected to see that money distributed within weeks of passing the emergency measure last December—it is, after all, an emergency. Some frustrating factors combined to delay that process too long—until two days ago, June 15, when the state announced awards of $7.5 million of the total $20 million total to Jackson County and $3.8 million to Josephine County. That will put at least three more full-time fully-trained Jackson County deputies on the job for three years, along with the equipment and support they need.
Law enforcement isn’t the only function we need to fortify. Water enforcement, code enforcement (to ensure safe buildings and electrical, plumbing and waste systems) and labor law enforcement to crack down on worker abuse are all part of the mix. But these new sheriff’s deputies are central to the solution because you can’t safely approach some of these criminal grows without fully armed officers.
It’s good to know that funding is finally on the way to our sheriffs, but we still have the challenge of assuring this level of funding for the next 5-10 years. We’ll be watched at least that long by the international outfits who’d like to reprise the enormous profits they easily made in Southern Oregon last year. If we ease up enforcement after a year or two, they’ll almost certainly be back. We can’t leave this issue until longer-term funding is secure.
 How are our efforts to deter this kind of crime paying off so far? We don’t know for sure, because these operators are good at shifting form and strategy as they need to. What we can confidently say is that the stunningly huge criminal operations we saw last year haven’t returned in any significant way. This short video comparing the 2021 and 2022 landscapes tells the tale.
So, some good news. But what you also saw was mountains of plastic waste across the landscape that are steadily disintegrating into fragments too small to remove from high-value farmland. That needs fast attention if we don’t want to sustain yet another big wound at the hands of these criminal growers. We’ll keep working towards full recovery from this sad chapter in Rogue Valley history.
Enjoy the beginning of a (so far) temperate summer, and do what you can do,
 Senator Jeff Golden, Oregon Senate District 3
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The Oregon Water Resources Department is accepting grant applications for the Water Well Abandonment, Repair, and Replacement Fund to provide financial assistance to permanently abandon, repair or replace a water well used for household purposes. Priority will be given to low and moderate income households in areas recently impacted by drought or wildfire.
For more information and to apply, click here. |
The program to reimburse landlords for rental losses because of the pandemic is here. |
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