Merkley, Wyden celebrate $24M coming to Oregon to strengthen and defend communities from wildfire

Washington, D.C. — Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced today the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USFS) is investing $24,063,442 in 13 projects across Oregon to make at-risk communities’ homes, businesses, and infrastructure more resilient to wildfires. This funding allocation is part of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program (CWDG), funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to protect communities and Tribal lands across the United States that are at risk for wildfires.

“Oregonians know all too well the threat severe wildfires pose to our homes, businesses, and way of life,” said Merkley, who oversees the USFS’ budget as Chair of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee and successfully helped double the funding available for the CWDG in his role. “As climate chaos fuels hotter, more dangerous fires, the threat to livelihoods, health, and natural treasures grows in Oregon and in communities across the West. Thanks to the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the USFS is investing in our state by fortifying our forests, timber industries, and communities—enhancing their health and resilience. I’ll always fight to secure the federal funding Oregon needs to take on the threat of wildfires in every corner of our state.”

“These significant federal resources toughening Oregon communities’ defenses against wildfire are especially welcome as the calendar turns to the hotter summer months,” said Wyden. “I’m glad the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that I worked to pass fully recognizes smart infrastructure investment in 2024 demands strong protection against the growing threat of wildfires from the climate crisis. And I’ll keep battling to provide similar wildfire funds for families, small businesses and communities throughout Oregon.”

Merkley and Wyden have long been champions of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program, with Merkley introducing his Wildfire Resilient Communities Act last year with Wyden as a cosponsor. The bill would reauthorize and triple funding up to $3 billion for the critical program.

These latest funds from the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program are part of more than $250 million being invested in 158 projects across 31 States, two Territories, and 11 Tribes. The 13 Oregon projects selected are as follows:

• City of Condon, City of Condon Fuel Breaks: $137,719 for equipment and the creation and maintenance of fuel breaks around vulnerable communities and critical infrastructure. Chipping equipment will also be used to provide chipping services to the City of Condon and its residents.

• North Gilliam County Rural Fire Protection District, Gilliam County Fuel Breaks: $55,049 for equipment and the creation and maintenance of fuel breaks around vulnerable communities and critical infrastructure. It will also establish community cleanup days.

• Wasco County, Partnering on Wildfire Mitigation: $5,945,663 to implement priority mitigation actions including creation of fuel breaks and defensible space to reduce wildfire risks to the rural, fire-vulnerable communities of Maupin, Pine Grove, Pine Hollow, Tygh Valley, and Wamic. The project will also add capacity to conduct home and community assessments, outreach, education and collaboration, with an emphasis on supporting socially and economically vulnerable residents.

• Midstate Electric Coop, Inc. (MEC), Midstate Electric Coop - Lake County: $4,966,618 to build on a pilot program to conduct intensive masticating and trimming to shorten the current vegetation trim cycle by half and expand mastication to target areas outside of the utility's right of ways. Project will expand work onto the property of private residences within the wildland-urban interface (WUI) to mitigate wildfire risk and protect critical infrastructure in MECs service area.

• Community Services Consortium, Enhancing Landscape Resiliency, Public Safety and Community Fire-adaptation in Santiam Canyon: $4,935,486 to conduct mechanical fuels reduction and defensible space, fuel break, and ingress/egress/accessibility projects in several Marion County communities.

• Walker Range Forest Protection Association, Walker Range FPA: $2,740,305 to complete mitigation efforts adjacent to disadvantaged communities, utilizing specialized mastication equipment and thinning. Project will enhance defensible space while providing job training and hands-on learning not only in fuels reduction but in forest management using diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice mindsets.

• Firebrand Resiliency Collective, Community Building, Education and Implementation for Rogue Valley: $1,465,295 to implement a cost-share program to harden structure-adjacent landscaping, augment existing defensible space efforts, and reduce structural ignition risk in the WUI. Project will also mitigate community loss to wildfire through improved outreach and education, resident accountability, resource navigation, and community-based resilience programs.

• Wallowa Resources, Union County Firewise Community Resiliency Project: $1,372,153 to improve fire and watershed scale resilience strategically across Union County by implementing defensible space treatments, fuels reduction and collaboratively developed community projects within 9 targeted Firewise Communities (FWCs). Project includes landscape scale fuels assessment in the county and home ignition zone assessments for individual landowners in the county.

• South Willamete Solutions, Oakridge-Westfir Fire-Adapted Community: $1,173,823 to build capacity with a fuels reduction project manager and a smoke outreach coordinator, implement strategic hazardous fuels reduction and develop a strategic plan and capacity for community prescribed burning to sustain fire mitigation treatments.

• Wallowa Resources, Baker Firewise Community Resiliency Project: $579,672 to improve fire and watershed scale resilience strategically across Baker County by implementing targeted labor-intensive defensible space treatments, fuels reduction beyond defensible space and collaboratively developed community projects within 6 targeted communities at risk of wildfire in Baker County.

• Josephine County Emergency Management Director, Josephine County CWPP: $250,000 to develop a CWPP for Josephine County. CWPPs and their equivalents are collaborative planning efforts intended for providing the community, however it may be defined in the plan, a way for reducing their wildfire risk and building resiliency to the impacts of wildfires. CWPP’s are an integral piece of helping communities implement the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.

• Applegate Partnership & Watershed Council, Applegate Fire Plan: $249,959 to update the 2002 Applegate Fire Plan, which spans two counties and three fire protection districts. CWPPs and their equivalents are collaborative planning efforts intended for providing the community, however it may be defined in the plan, a way for reducing their wildfire risk and building resiliency to the impacts of wildfires. CWPP’s are an integral piece of helping communities implement the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.

• City of Grants Pass, City of Grants Pass CWPP: $191,700 to create a City of Grants Pass CWPP. CWPPs and their equivalents are collaborative planning efforts intended for providing the community, however it may be defined in the plan, a way for reducing their wildfire risk and building resiliency to the impacts of wildfires. CWPP’s are an integral piece of helping communities implement the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy.