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Oregon Living With Fire reports on grants, workforce and regional coordination; commissioners ask staff to draft federal funding letter
Summary
Representatives from Oregon Living With Fire updated commissioners on 2024 activities and 2025 plans, including a $6 million BRIC application to protect two museums and frozen Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds; commissioners asked staff to work with the group to draft a letter describing local impacts of frozen federal funding.
Representatives of Oregon Living With Fire told the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners on March 5 about last year's outreach and partnerships and about active grant work they expect this year. Jody Barham, a co-coordinator of Oregon Living With Fire, and Dr. Jennifer (Jen) Fenton described regional coordination on fuels reduction, preparedness fairs and a pending Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities (BRIC) grant application that would defend the High Desert Museum and the Museum at Warm Springs.
Dr. Fenton said the BRIC application requests $6 million and that Wildfire Water Solutions has agreed to provide the required 10 percent cost match. "So that would be a $600,000 match out of the 6,000,000 that we're asking for," she said, adding that the project would tie into mitigation work and could allow the museums to shelter in place and provide evacuation space.
Barham and Fenton said some federal funding sources tied to fuels-reduction and conservation work have been frozen, including funds from the Inflation Reduction Act used by local partners; they said the program maintained short-term capacity through county-managed funds but that uncertainty about federal reimbursements exists. Commissioners discussed drafting a site-specific letter describing the local impacts of frozen federal funds; Barham and Fenton agreed to work with commissioners to prepare a draft for the board within a week.
The presenters also described workforce-development efforts with the Oregon Conservation Corps and the wildfire workforce partnership to connect contractors and landscapers with fuels-reduction work.
Ending Barham and Fenton said Oregon Living With Fire will continue to pursue grants and coordinate regional preparedness events; staff will prepare the requested local-impact examples and a draft letter for the board to consider moving up the federal funding pipeline.
