Lawamkers: Repeal disastrous Oregon wildfire map

February 17th, 2025, inside the Oregon State Capitol, Oregon Republican House and Senate Legislators held a joint press conference to express their desire to repeal the Oregon Wildfire Map.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Oregon House Republican leader, Representative Christine Drazan, began the press conference by criticizing the Oregon Wildfire Map: “This map is agency overreach that threatens their day-to-day lives.” In addition, Drazan calls out how maps are not accurate regarding conditions on the ground. Even if a landowner in a high-hazard destination area complies with regulations, maintains trims, and does everything they can to comply, this program still penalizes them with an unchanged destination. Drazan also said that there is a fear that this program is being weaponized to force those who live in rural areas to be forced out of rural Oregon. The house leader reaffirms that the House and Senate Republicans are united in seeking the total repeal of the Wildfire Map. “It is unfair to put the burden of fuel reduction solely on private property owners while the state and federal governments failed to steward our forest and public lands adequately.” Rep. Drazan also highlighted the great need for actual forest management to prevent devastating wildfires.

State Senator David Brock Smith, who is also the deputy leader of the Senate Republicans, joined Rep. Drazan in calling for the total repeal of the Wildfire Map and supported Senator Noah Robison’s bill (SB678), highlighting that over 100,000 Oregonians are impacted by the Wildfire Map. From 2013-23, “82% of the acres burned in Oregon are burned on federal land, and only 18% come from private land.” Sen. Smith added that 15% of fires on private land are started by fires on federal land, and the 3% started on private land with private land fires are less than 100 acres due to good property management.

Sen. Noah Robinson talked about how the maps are causing insurance rates to skyrocket and making many Oregonians unable to live on their land. “These maps are not helping and are riddled with errors.” The senator highlighted the computer modeling used to create these maps, cannot adapt to the constantly changing conditions. Sen. Robinson also highlighted property rights issues as the state can determine your costs and how to rebuild to their desire.

Rep Mark Owens highlighted that his experience with the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and Oregon State University (OSU), who created the Wildfire Map, failed to keep their commitment to work with local communities and counties to fix errors made by the maps. Rep Owens also highlighted a current bill in the senate (SB79): “If you are in a WUI (Wildland Urban Interface), in a high-hazard area, you won’t be able to build in Oregon again.” Rep Owen calls for Oregonians to come and support legislation efforts to add political pressure to repeal the Wildfire Map.

Rep. Drazan invited Governor Kotek to officially endorse the repeal of the wildfire, adding that Oregonians need to seek elected officials to head the calls of their continuity and welcome the governor’s support and commitment to a bipartisan effort.

Regarding bipartisanship support, Sen. Smith also responded to questions about bipartisanship efforts with Senator Jeff Golden (D), who has been in talks with Senate Republicans and is still working out the details on how to find a solution. Rep. Owens also chimed in, stating that this will be a bipartisanship effort due to a strong grassroots effort resulting in thousands of emails and requests to repeal the Wildfire Map.

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