Firefighters with the Oregon Department of Forestry train in June 2017. The Oregon Department of Forestry declared all of its districts were in fire season for 2023 as of Thursday, July 1. ODF on July 12 raised the fire restrictions in the Northeast Oregon District from moderate to high fire danger.

SALEM — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden says he is awaiting an announcement by President Biden’s administration about a mobilization plan for firefighters and equipment for widespread forest fires in the West.

The Oregon Democrat told reporters Saturday, June 26, that such a mobilization plan is likely to require more money as well. He based his observation on a June 17 hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which heard a presentation by Chief Vicki Christiansen about Biden’s 2022 budget request for the U.S. Forest Service.

That budget year starts Oct. 1.

“I do think it will take additional resources,” Wyden, who sits on that committee, said. “I think in a matter of days, the Biden administration will be outlining the steps that I have touched on that constitutes its strategy against this grave threat.

“I believe what we will hear about is making sure there are personnel available in the West to fight multiple fires at the same time. This is a departure from the past. Usually we have one big fire and other western states would chip in to help the state that was hit the hardest. Now, we are talking about something that is unprecedented: Big fires simultaneously throughout the West.”

Wyden led the committee for about one year, from 2013 to 2014, when he took over the tax-writing Finance Committee, which he now leads again after Democrats became the Senate’s majority party with Vice President Kamala Harris the tie-breaker in a 50-50 chamber.

Wyden continues to sit on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee as the No. 2 Democrat behind Chairman Joe Manchin, of West Virginia. Senate rules allow one committee chairmanship per member.

Budget details are decided by the Appropriations Committee; Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley leads the subcommittee that oversees the Forest Service.

Wyden spoke on a weekend when temperatures exceeded 100 in virtually all of Oregon, and drought affects most of the state.

Wyden and Merkley toured Oregon twice in the aftermath of the 2020 Labor Day wildfires, which affected all four metropolitan areas on the westside — Portland, Salem, Eugene and Medford — with wildfire smoke or worse. (The Almeda fire swept through communities south of Medford and destroyed an estimated 2,500 homes, the largest concentrated loss statewide.)

Wildfires also burned on the central coast, Central Oregon, and near Roseburg and Grants Pass.

Wyden says he expects one element of the response plan to be cooperation among the agencies responsible for forest firefighting. “Local, state and federal firefighters are going to be tightly coordinated in order to deal with this grave threat,” he said.

In Oregon, that responsibility is divided among fire protection districts, Oregon Department of Forestry — which also contracts to protest western Oregon forests overseen by the Bureau of Land Management — and the Forest Service for national forests.

Wyden said Congress should increase the amount of money available for the Forest Service to reduce hazardous-fuel buildups in national forests. Oregon itself has about 2 million acres eligible for treatment. Wyden said Forest Service chief Christiansen estimates it will take $20 billion to eliminate the backlog.

Wyden also is promoting the creation of a 21st century equivalent of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the New Deal-era agency that put primarily young and unmarried men to work in the nation’s forests between 1933 and 1942. Silver Falls State Park, east of Salem, is one of the CCC’s legacies in Oregon.