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Calling it a “recipe for trouble” that could become “a four-alarmer,” U.S.
Sen.
Ron Wyden sounded the alarm this week over the Pacific Northwest’s 20% vacancy rate for wildland firefighters.
The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, however, said Wednesday that it has 37 wildland firefighting vacancies, a number it describes as “not much higher than the amount of vacancies we typically have any given year.” The Oregon Department of Forestry Southwest Oregon District says they’re “very close to filling all our positions,” and what’s unfilled is in the single digits.
Wyden raised concerns June 9 at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing of the Forest Service budget, where he pressed U.S.
Forest Service Chief Randy Moore to utilize Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to address the shortage through better pay and benefits, according to a news release with video from the Democratic senator’s office. “Oregonians were telling me last week everywhere I went that the shortage of permanent wildland fire positions, if not addressed, is on its way to becoming a four-alarmer,” Wyden told Moore.
Already in Oregon there is a 20% vacancy rate in these positions, and Western states are borrowing firefighters from each other.
That’s a recipe for trouble.” Moore responded by telling Wyden, “If I had the ability to set pay for my firefighters, I would certainly do that.” Instead, Moore said he’s “left trying to implement” directions he’s given through legislation.
Regarding the infrastructure legislation, Moore said he intends to “use every tool” available “to pay our firefighters more because they are very deserving of it.” “It’s dirty, nasty, hard work,” Moore said. “And they do deserve better pay, they deserve better benefits, they deserve better care in terms of mental and physical health conditions out there.” Across Oregon and Washington, the U.S.
Forest Service has filled 1,840 of its 2,281 fire and aviation management positions , a vacancy rate of 19.3%, according to an emailed statement from Jennifer O’Leary, a spokesperson for the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest and Alaska regions. “Our emphasis on recruitment efforts for temporary and permanent firefighters is ongoing.
As we head into the next few months, when we typically see the greatest fire activity across the Pacific Northwest, what will ultimately guide our success in managing the wildfires that we experience are the strategies identified working in close collaboration with our partners that best allow us to meet our highest priority of protecting communities and firefighters,” O’Leary’s statement said in part.
Within the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, there are a combined 181 firefighting positions, 37 of which are vacant, according to spokeswoman Virginia Gibbons.
That translates to a vacancy rate of 20.4%.
More than half of those local vacancies , about 60% , are at the entry level, according to Gibbons.
Gibbons described openings at higher levels as “being filled with detailers to ensure leadership is in place for the fire season.” Oregon Department of Forestry Southwest Oregon District spokeswoman Natalie Weber said in an email that they “certainly faced a challenge with hiring our seasonal staff this year, as everyone has,” but nearly all of the agency’s openings are filled.
Weber said they’re down to one opening in their Medford unit office and five openings in their Grants Pass unit.
Weber said the agency will likely fill the open positions with temporary employees.
Reach web editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or nmorgan@rosebudmedia.com.