Oregon's comprehensive & contentious wildfire response bill left for the last week in session

“I challenge anyone to talk about a solution at that scale,” said Michael Medler, a professor at Western Washington University whose research focuses on mapping and analyzing natural disturbances such as wildfires. “If money is going to be spent and thinning is going to be done, most of those resources ought to be concentrated around communities you want to protect.”

Medler’s research suggests that the state would only have to treat some 52,000 acres to establish quarter-mile buffers around communities in the wildland urban interface. Clearing additional space around properties on the outskirts of those communities increases that total to some 130,000 acres, a far more doable task that could be maintained over the long haul. Those projects would create local jobs too, he said, while reducing the risk to housing, churches and grocery stores.