
Wildfire season is underway in the conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest, and lawmakers in Oregon are looking to get ahead of things. On Monday the 24th of June, legislators in the Beaver state attended a briefing given by the Northewest Interagency Coordination Center (IOCC), where they were given an outlook on the 2024 wildfire season. The briefing zeroed in on a particular region of the state as representing a “hotbed” of fire risk.
Members of Oregon’s Federal delegation, including Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, as well as Representative Suzeanne Bonamici attended the briefing, where they were told by Jon Bonk, the IOCC’s Fire Weather Meteorologist, that the weather presents a mixed bag this year when it comes to the wildfire outlook. On the one hand, Bonk said, temperatures in the northern part of the state have been cooler than normal over the past three months. Drought areas have also diminished across the bulk of Oregon’s acreage since the second of January this year. Unfortunately, as of June 18, they are seeing drought areas expand across the north-central and northwest areas of Washington State, which doesn’t bode well for Norther Oregon.
To put it bluntly, despite the improved drought outlook, Oregon’s rain levels are below normal as the state enters wildfire seasons, Bonk said.
Looking from the crest of the Cascade mountain range and to the east, a great deal of the state is moderately below normal, which sets the stage for a potential wildfire season concentrated in that area. During August and September, Bonk said, the southeast area of the state is expected to be a hotbed of wildfire activity.
This prediction marks a change from last year, when there were no significant wildfires in the southeast—another factor which ups the danger, as last year’s grass crop was not burned off (as frequently happens), so it is now available as fuel for a more severe fire season this year.