It takes a village to fight a forest fire

Here we go again.

After two weeks of scorching heat sent fire danger soaring, especially on Oregon’s dry east side, Gov. Tina Kotek declared a statewide wildfire emergency Monday, effective through the Oct. 1 end of the 2024 fire season.

Nationally, fires burned just shy of 2.7 million acres of wildland last year, the lowest level of loss since 1998. But acres lost to wildfire have been averaging more than 7 million a year so far this century, and have topped 10 million three times in the last 10 years.

The 2022 fire season was more typical, with 69,000 fires scorching 7.6 million acres.

In Oregon, 2,117 fires accounted for 456,000 acres of the national loss that year, fourth after Alaska, New Mexico and Texas. Idaho ranked fifth, Oklahoma sixth and California seventh.

Sadly, this year’s fire season seems destined to more resemble that of 2022 and immediately preceding years than 2023.

And Oregon not only ranks among the national leaders for wildfire frequency and extent, but also for housing units at wildfire risk. California leads at 1.3 million, followed by Colorado, 333,000; Texas, 233,000; Oregon, 124,000; Arizona, 122,000; New Mexico, 116,000; and Idaho, 100,000.

Alaska typically loses far more acres to fire, some 3 million in 2022 alone. But it is so sparsely populated, it has far fewer dwellings deemed at risk.

Oregon already has eight wildfires burning out of control at this early stage in the season. The list is led by the Larch Creek Fire in Wasco County, Lone Rock Fire in Morrow County, Cow Valley and Falls fires in Harney County and Salt Creek Fire in Jackson County.

That prompted federal forester Ed Hiatt to note, “We’re entering a very dangerous time period in the Pacific Northwest wildfire season. Mother Nature turned on the oven for a week in local forests, and now we’re preparing for the potential for dry lightning and gusty winds across much of Eastern Oregon.”

Kotek echoed that, saying, “Wildfires are active across Oregon, and are growing at a concerning pace. Hot and windy conditions this weekend, including forecasted lightning in some areas, are threatening even larger wildfires.”

She went on to note, “Throughout the summer, it will inevitably get hotter and drier, presenting an even greater risk.”

The governor expressed the most immediate concern about the Cow Valley Fire, which remained at zero containment Monday, having already blackened 132,500 acres. She invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act to qualify the blaze for additional firefighting resources from western portions of the U.S. and Canada.

Sometimes it seems there is little the state’s lay citizenry can do to help ease the threat. But, in fact, that’s simply not true.

Almost 90% of all wildfires stem from human activity, most of it negligent to at least some extent. And a failure to properly prepare is a major factor in the loss of housing units, particularly in the urban interface zone around cities like Bend and Boise.

At a minimum, we can take steps to minimize risk as we work, recreate or traverse tracts of wildland, and strive to make our holdings as fire resistant as possible, particularly in known risk areas.

The Western Fire Chiefs Association warns, “Historical trends show fires getting worse across the globe.” It cites climate change as the leading factor, saying it “causes the fires to burn larger and more intensely.”

Realizing that, it is incumbent on us to respond as quickly and effectively as possible.

Units of government can and are taking steps on their own, via thinning projects, prescribed burns, tougher safety regulations, more aggressive management, better risk assessment and augmented firefighting resources. But individual Oregonians also have a part to play as well, and time’s a wasting.