Pacific Northwest receives $9M for wildfire prevention after large fire season

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) – Four wildfire prevention projects in Oregon and Washington will receive over $9 million from the United States Department of Agriculture, Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Thursday.

The funding includes over $4.8 million for the Elk Tribal and Community Healthy Forest Restoration Project in Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest for prescribed fire and fuel breaks in the Elk Creek Watershed.

Another $4 million will help wildfire prevention efforts in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon, which includes conifer forests that mostly have not experienced wildfire in at least 125 years, the USDA said, noting the area has critically-high levels of dead and live vegetation.

“The projects funded through the program were collaboratively designed with local partners and Tribes and will provide economic benefits to local economies while reducing wildfire risk,” said Jacque Buchanan, regional forester for the Pacific Northwest region of the Forest Service.

“In addition to on-the-ground forest restoration work such as mechanical thinning and prescribed fire, the projects support crucial surveys, workforce development, and public engagement that enable future wildfire risk reduction efforts,” Buchanan furthered.

Additional funding will go towards the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area for cultural resource surveys and to promote tribal youth engagement on approximately 5,000 acres of the scenic area.

Another $132,000 will benefit Oregon’s Wallowa-Whitman National Forest for critical heritage surveys and an environmental analysis in the La Grande Ranger District.

The funding for wildfire prevention projects comes as Oregon has seen four megafires in 2024, marking the largest wildfire season since the Labor Day Fires of 2020 .

In July 2024, Oregon was the number one firefighting priority in the country with close to 6,800 firefighters working across the state to contain the fires.

Director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Erica Fleishman, previously told KOIN 6 News that the area burned by wildfires in Oregon in 2024, so far, is fairly high compared to past years. However, more than 1 million acres burned in at least six other years from 1984 to 2022, she said.

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