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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate NEWS NOW Jackson County fire districts join in Stouts fire battle ... Neighbors witness injured women screaming for help in White City shooting ... Scam bilks $245,000 from local businesses ... Jackson County fire districts join in Stouts fire battle ... Neighbors witness injured women screaming for help in White City shooting ... Scam bilks $245,000 from local businesses ... ENVIRONMENT Walden pushes for FEMA help with wildfires House bill would treat fires like other natural disasters Comment By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 5, 2015 at 2:13 PM Updated Aug 5, 2015 at 5:26 PM By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 5, 2015 at 2:13 PM Updated Aug 5, 2015 at 5:26 PM » Social News Treating wildfires like other natural disasters and streamlining federal processes to expedite thinning and salvage logging will help Southern Oregon better deal with forest health and wildfires on federal lands "ripe for explosion," U.S. Rep. Greg Walden said Wednesday. With the smoky haze from a nearby forest fire as a backdrop at the Forest Service tanker base in Medford, Walden stumped for a bill that he said would more effectively put federal funds toward helping forests withstand wildfire and expand coffers to pay for it when they do burn. Among many things, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015 would allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help fund wildfire expenses so the Forest Service doesn’t have to cannibalize other portions of its budget to douse flames. Current law allows FEMA responses for hurricanes and floods but not wildfire suppression. "Why is a fire created by nature, by lightning, not an equal emergency to a tornado or a flood?" Walden said. "It is." FEMA does provide funding for fires on private and state lands, but not on federal lands, leaving that expense to come out of the budgets of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. County commissioners from Jackson and Josephine counties and others joined Walden at a press conference at the Medford airport's federal tanker base to urge the Senate to pass the bill, known as HR 2647, when the Senate reconvenes this fall. Most of them chided a slow-to-react federal bureaucracy hampered by lawsuits from conservation groups as contributing to wildfire woes that are progressively getting worse. They also noted the government spends four times more money on wildfire suppression than on thinning projects that could help curb those fires. Jackson County Commissioner Doug Breidenthal said the "status-quo of inaction has exacerbated catastrophic wildfire conditions." That, he said, has created "our new normal" of summers plagued by wildfire smoke that the Forest Service estimates harms lungs with the carcinogenic equivalent of a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit. "Our community, our loved ones, pay the price for this mismanagement and politics going on now," Breidenthal said. The bill would require anyone who files suit in federal court challenging logging or other projects planned under the bill to post bonds covering the Forest Service’s defense costs should the government prevail. Not doing so, Walden said, helps lead to frivolous suits at taxpayer expense, and litigious-minded environmental groups "should also have some skin in the game." It also would restrict legal challenges to projects and restrict legal costs the government would have to pay challengers who win suits against the government. The bill includes a provision that would streamline smaller salvage-logging projects to help pay for a proposed reforestation rate of 75 percent on Forest Service lands burned by fire. Current Forest Service estimates are that 3 percent of its lands burned by wildfire get replanted. Some of the bill's opponents have taken issue with Walden and the bill's supporters for linking wildfire suppression to new policies they say will harm forest health. KS Wild Executive Director Joseph Vaile said the FEMA angle for funding firefighting costs is "long overdue," but said calling for logging without careful consideration of the science of post-fire restoration "will make matters worse." "Protecting homes and communities while thinning overly stocked forests with good science and community input is the way to go," Vaile said. While the drought and record-breaking heat that have contributed to wildfire seasons are a reality, "it is unfortunate that Walden has voted against battling climate change at nearly every turn, and consistently votes in favor of more fossil fuel development," Vaile said. "Climate change models show that we will be seeing more fires in our region in the coming decades." Walden and other congressmen have pushed similar bills in recent years that have come out of the House only to die in the Senate. Walden acknowledged that "it's not my first rodeo on forestry," but said he thinks this bill has a better chance in the Senate in part because it's a smaller version of past efforts. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected] . Follow him at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman . By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 5, 2015 at 2:13 PM Updated Aug 5, 2015 at 5:26 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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