Jeff Merkley

DETROIT — Almost six years after the 2020 Labor Day Fires devastated the Santiam Canyon and Detroit, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, returned July 24 for a roundtable on what can be improved for residents still recovering from one of the state’s worst disasters.

Merkley spoke with lawmakers and residents from the Santiam Canyon on key issues for recovery and making sure a disaster similar to 2020 didn’t happen again.

To that end, the longtime senator focused on improving forest health by promoting biomass, reducing the cost of wildfire insurance and making it easier for communities to conduct prescribed burning to reduce forest fuels.

The hope, he said, was to make it safer and more affordable for those living in areas with elevated wildfire risk.

“How can we make it less of a disaster the next time (a wildfire ignites near the Santiam Canyon)?” Merkley said, in meeting with local commissioners, mayors and residents of Detroit, Idanha, Gates and Mill City.

Bill to ramp up biomass gets widespread support

Merkley found a lot of support among lawmakers for his Wildfire Reduction Market Expansion Act, a bill that modernizes the definition of biomass as a renewable energy, establishing a market for a woody debris that can be removed from the forest to reduce the threat of wildfire, and then burned to create energy.

Tony Morones, mayor of Idanha, said he’d heard from a company interested in setting up at one of the town’s old mill sites specifically to produce biomass and firewood.

“It’s very exciting because we’re talking about old sites that aren’t being used for anything right now, and could bring back dozens of jobs to our town,” he said. “We have housing but no way to support our residents, so it’s a very exciting development.”

Other members of the panel echoed the hope that ramping up biomass as a renewable fuel could help safeguard the community.

“Biomass and fuels reduction is a must, because the next evil thing that’s coming is (another fire), and our vegetation is coming back and it’s thick,” Idanha-Detroit Fire District Chief Fred Patterson said. “We have to get it out of there or we’ll face the same issue again.”

Home hardening could lead to discounted fire insurance

In a bill introduced on July 23, Merkley sought to help homeowners create defensible space and harden their homes, and in the process reduce the cost of wildfire insurance.

Members on the panel noted that their insurance costs had doubled or even tripled in the past few years due in part to living in an area with a higher wildfire risk.

Merkley said his “Wildfire Insurance Affordability Act” would be a two-step process. First, it would provide grants to states to set up a program for individuals to create defensible space and harden their homes. Once they did that, a pilot program would provide vouchers to low-income homeowners who have completed hardening and defensible space.

“It won’t lower rates to what they were in the past, but it’s trying to find a way to help people who might not be able to afford insurance,” he said.

Final bill seeks to make it easier to burn

A third bill would make it easier for communities to conduct prescribed burning, to reduce the fuels that drive wildfire growth, near communities.

The Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act would remove regulatory burdens for the burns under the Clean Air Act.

“Our bipartisan bill supports more prescribed fire on the landscape,” Merkley said.

Other issues

Merkley also spoke with community members about the challenges of navigating disaster relief and setting up temporary housing.