Oregon lawmakers to hold special session on emergency wildfire funding
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[December 12, 2024]
By CLAIRE RUSH
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon lawmakers are convening Thursday for a special
session to discuss emergency funding to pay out millions in unpaid bills
stemming from the state’s 2024 record wildfire season.
As wildfires still rage in California, Oregon is among several states
grappling with steep costs related to fighting wildfires this year. New
Mexico lawmakers in a July special session approved millions in
emergency aid for wildfire victims, and states including North Dakota
and Wyoming have requested federal disaster declarations to help with
recovery costs.
Fighting the blazes that scorched a record 1.9 million acres (769,000
hectares), or nearly 2,970 square miles (7,692 square kilometers),
largely in eastern Oregon, cost the state over $350 million, according
to Gov. Tina Kotek. The sum has made it the most expensive wildfire
season in state history, her office said.
While over half of the costs will eventually be covered by the federal
government, the state still needs to pay the bills while waiting to be
reimbursed.

“The unprecedented 2024 wildfire season required all of us to work
together to protect life, land, and property, and that spirit of
cooperation must continue in order to meet our fiscal responsibilities,”
Kotek said in a late November news release announcing the special
session.
Oregon wildfires this year destroyed at least 42 homes and burned large
swaths of range and grazing land in the state’s rural east. At one
point, the Durkee Fire, which scorched roughly 460 square miles (1,200
square kilometers) near the Oregon-Idaho border, was the largest in the
nation.
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This photo provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation shows
the Durkee Fire burning in eastern Ore., July 22, 2024. (Oregon
Department of Transportation via AP, File)

Kotek declared a state of emergency in July in response to the
threat of wildfire, and invoked the state’s Emergency Conflagration
Act a record 17 times during the season.
For the special session, Kotek has asked lawmakers to approve $218
million for the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon
Department of the State Fire Marshal. The money would help the
agencies continue operations and pay the contractors that helped to
fight the blazes and provide resources.
The special session comes ahead of the start of the next legislative
session in January, when lawmakers will be tasked with finding more
permanent revenue streams for wildfire costs that have ballooned
with climate change worsening drought conditions across the U.S.
West.
In the upcoming legislative session, Kotek wants lawmakers to
increase wildfire readiness and mitigation funding by $130 million
in the state’s two-year budget cycle going forward. She has also
requested that $150 million be redirected from being deposited in
the state’s rainy day fund, on a one-time basis, to fire agencies to
help them pay for wildfire suppression efforts.
While Oregon’s 2024 wildfire season was a record in terms of cost
and acreage burned, that of 2020 remains historic for being among
the worst natural disasters in Oregon’s history. The 2020 Labor Day
weekend fires killed nine people and destroyed upward of 5,000 homes
and other structures.
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