By: Laura Gunderson | The Oregonian

August 23, 2016

Original Source

Oregon’s Department of Forestry has been stretched too thin – both in its budget and staffing – over the past three severe fire seasons, according to an audit released Tuesday by the Secretary of State’s Office.

The practice of diverting money and full-time staff hours to fight large fires since 2012 hurt the agency’s other programs, including those aimed at preventing wildfires, protecting wildlife and managing state forests, the audit found.

The agency has fallen so behind on paperwork, the audit found, that managers have submitted costs for only two of 15 recent fires eligible for reimbursement from other federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency. To fill resulting budget holes, the agency borrowed from the state and has had to pay $1.5 million in interest payments.

A spokesman for the forestry department could not be reached for comment.

Overall, the audit shows the state Forestry Department is struggling with similar issues as its federal counterpart, the U.S. Forest Service, as both agencies face increasingly long and intense wildfire seasons.

Last year alone, 2,524 fires burned in Oregon over a total of 633,048 acres. The largest in the record 2015 fire season was the Canyon Creek fire, which burned 110,422 acres of public and private forestland near John Day and destroyed 43 homes and nearly 100 barns, workshops and other structures.

A recent investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive examined how extreme conditions in recent fire seasons along with years of failed forest policy helped fuel the Canyon Creek fire, the state’s most destructive wildfire in 80 years.

The audit of the state forestry department also found:

— The agency has about the same number of employees — about 870 — as it did 20 years ago and they’re working much longer hours fighting fires. Overtime claimed by state forestry employees ballooned by 197 percent during the past three fire seasons.

— As employee morale has dropped and non-fire programs have been sapped, the agency has failed to “collect, analyze and communicate” to state lawmakers a clear picture of how severe wildfire seasons have stressed the agency.

— The agency must make better staffing and budget decisions by tracking when employees and money for non-fire programs are used to fight fires.

“A healthy and sustainable forestry department will help ensure a healthy and sustainable Oregon,” wrote Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins in a statement released with the audit. “More and more severe wildfires are a reality the agency must take into account as it tries to meet its larger mission.”

The audit comes as the state forester, Doug Decker, plans to retire this fall. The agency announced last week that its board planned to begin interview candidates to replaces Decker.

In a letter responding to the audit, Decker wrote that he accepted all of the Secretary of State’s recommendations. He added that work had already begun on several fronts, including ways to better gauge staffing needs, track how existing resources are used and the need to use contractors to complete FEMA reimbursements.

Decker also added that the state could permanently fund a program intended to help the U.S. Forest Service increase the pace and scale of restoration work – selective logging, thinning and controlled burning – aimed at keeping forests healthy and more resistant to extreme wildfires. Such work would benefit, he said, with additional markets for small-diameter trees and vegetation collected through the restoration clean up.

The department, he wrote, “shares the urgency to reverse ecological trends at the landscape level and economic trends in our rural communities.”