Towards More Community-Informed Regulation: A Policy Implementation Analysis of Managing Wildfire Risk in Oregon 23-1-01-20

Project ID: L23AC00280

Federal Agency: Bureau of Land Management

Partner Institution: University of Oregon

Fiscal Year: 2023

Initial Funding: $22,203

Total Funding: $22,203

Principal Investigator: Johnson, Leigh

Agreement Technical Representative: Jenison, Becky

Abstract: 

Problem Statement
Understanding the role of policymaking and governance in mitigating risk and building preparedness is increasingly important and time sensitive as wildfires grow more costly, expansive, and damaging. Many researchers and managers agree that the governance structure of wildfire risk is complex because it consists of multiple stakeholders, interest groups, and agencies with divergent policies, incentives, and practices (Calkin et al. 2011). These actors are not always well-incentivized to work together and even in the case of intended coordination, administrative and policy limitations can inhibit broader resource- and responsibility-sharing (Davis et al. 2021).

Less clear, however, is when an actual law or policy is acting as the barrier, and when the barrier is largely avoidable.

Oregon’s Senate Bill 762, which provides $220 million in funding for wildfire adaptation, resilience, and mitigation from home protection zones to entire watersheds, is one of the latest wildfire preparedness and resilience building policy initiatives in the American West. Despite such a robust bill, there has been great public pushback to its actual implementation due to limited community outreach prior to the launch of downstream regulations stemming from the SB 762 wildfire risk map. Pushback has come in the form of both floods of angry emails and calls, as well as threats of actual violence towards Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM), Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), and cartographers at Oregon State University (OSU) (Casey 2022, unpublished interview). As it stands, the SB 762 risk map has been rescinded, and implementation of new fire safety codes delayed.

The overall goal of this project is to better understand the implications of SB 762’s regulatory framework on local policymakers, landowners, and fire safety personnel, and identify areas of opportunity for community engagement.