The Associated Press
SALEM, Ore.— Up to $10 million in taxpayer money may be funneled toward emergency firefighting measures on private land, under a deal worked out by legislators in the last days of the just-concluded session.
The new provisions won final approval last week and now await the governor’s signature.
But the deal with forest owners has drawn criticism as an unjustifiable cost shift from the timber industry to taxpayers.
“For the first time, you’ve got taxpayers on the hook for that $10 million,” said Mari Anne Gest, a lobbyist for The Wild Salmon Center, who fought unsuccessfully against the proposal. “I was outraged that the timber industry came up with this plan to shift costs for fighting fires on industrial lands from themselves to the taxpayers.”
The new legislation was drawn up primarily by representatives of government forestry agencies and forest land owners, and pitched as a new way to divide up the costs of fighting fires while allowing Oregon to continue to ensure against catastrophic fires on industrial forests.
Currently, when fire first breaks out on private lands, state crews respond, but their costs are covered by fees and assessments on timber companies and forestland and lot owners, along with money from the state general fund, which pays about half the costs.
When these initial-response efforts aren’t enough, additional crews and equipment are called in for “emergency suppression” measures. These costs have in recent years been borne solely by the private forestland owners themselves, through the insurance policy premium and deductible, which has been $10 million a year.
Under the new plan, though, the state’s insurance policy will carry a higher deductible — $25 million instead of $10 million — that must be spent before the policy kicks in.
That deductible for the first time will be paid in part from the general fund. The first $15 million of costs for emergency suppression of fires on private forests will be paid by landowners. After that, the remaining $10 million would come from the general fund.
Ray Wilkeson, lobbyist for the Oregon Forest Industries Council said that while land owners have in recent years paid virtually all the costs of fighting catastrophic fires, the principle of splitting the overall firefighting costs on private forests between taxpayers and landowners dates back to early in the 20th century.
He said this notion of “shared responsibility” made sense in part because members of the public start many of the fires that sweep across private forestland. In addition, Wilkeson said, “a lot of the values at risk from fires are public values — water quality and wildlife, primarily.”
The legislation was approved by big majorities in both the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate.