ODF: $20 M grant put in place for wildfire risk reduction, encourage healthy forest growth
by KATU Staff
Monday, November 28th 2022
PORTLAND, Ore. — A $20 million grant has been rolled out to help reduce wildfire risk, and protect lives and property. In 2021, the Oregon Legislature invested nearly $195 million to address Oregon’s wildfire crisis through Senate Bill 762. $20 million of the $195 million created a two-year landscape resiliency and mitigation grant that the Oregon Department of Forestry has been administering.
Oregon’s State Forester Cal Mukumoto says, “Projects like this are a major step towards protecting communities and natural resources in Oregon by making forests healthier and more resilient in the face of changing climate and wildfire environment.”
According to ODF, just over 200,000 acres of Oregon landscapes are planned to be treated by June 2023. Officials say these projects in some of the highest-risk landscapes will greatly reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in those treated areas.
In addition to reducing the wildfire risk, officials say it will make the forestland safe and will encourage forest health, resiliency, ecosystem health, and shared stewardship.
“We went to see five different projects—five different stories of what landscape resiliency looks like,” said Jeff Burns, ODF’s All Lands Initiatives Unit Manager. “These five projects boasted just shy of 2,000 acres of fuels mitigation and resiliency work. However, the real highlight of the tour was the focus on what our partnerships and relationships can achieve together. The support and collaboration of these diverse groups are key to the success of getting this work done on the ground in such a short period of time.”
Some of the projects visited included:
- The Upper Deschutes Watershed Council removed trees on 58 acres that provided approximately 750 trees to be used for in-stream work and habitat restoration.
- The Ponderosa Land & Cattle Company project that included 727 acres of roadside brushing, thinning, mowing and mastication for fuel breaks. It also treated 590 acres of unit mowing, mastication, thinning and ladder fuels.
- The Black Butte Ranch project highlighted the use of an air curtain burner that can be used to dispose debris from their project of 79 acres of roadside brushing, thinning, stump grinding, limb removal, and mastication. Two other private landowners had projects concentrated on thinning and pruning pine trees, removal of juniper, mastication of ladder fuels such as bitterbrush, and burn piles.
- The Ludwick Property Project treated 170 acres
- The Glynn Property Project treated 200 acres.
“Access to programs like this enable ODF to work closely with our public and private partners to support communities, local economies, and natural resources while making them safer from wildfires,” Burns said. “At the end of these projects, we hope we can show a level of success that will encourage future funding for this type of work.”