As fire season approaches, wildfire researchers at the University of Oregon have expressed concern about how cuts at the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies could affect response to fires in Oregon, where more than half of all land is owned by the federal government.
Thousands of Forest Service workers were among the layoffs that hit the federal workforce earlier this year.
Federal officials claim the cuts did not include firefighters, but news outlets including the Salem Statesman Journal. have reported that layoffs have included firefighting support staff.
Heidi Huber-Stearns, Director of the Center for Wildfire Smoke Research and Practice at the UO, said that could shift work to local, state, tribal and private fire crews.
“And that comes with its own set of challenges as some of the funding limitations trickle down to those local groups,” she said.
State officials say they are not worried about how changes in federal staffing could affect firefighting preparedness, but James Johnston, an Assistant Research Professor in UO’s Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments said non-federal fire crews should be thinking about preparation for the season.
“I think the two most important [areas] are wrangling stable funding for needed work, and the second is developing that really skilled workforce,” he said.
Johnston and Huber-Stearns were part of an online panel of UO wildfire experts that talked to reporters on May 15.
Earlier this month, Oregon officials said they anticipate a hot and dry summer, which brings the potential for an active fire season.
Last year’s fire season was one of the worst in state history, with a record 1.9 million acres affected by fire.
