Association of Oregon Counties (AOC)-County Solutions worked with the Legislature and Sudden Oak Death (SOD) task force to secure funding for an integrated pest management program to prevent and slow the spreading of Phytophora ramorum, the invasive pathogen that causes SOD. Funding was ultimately granted for this project in the Christmas tree bill (HB 5050) in the final hours of the 2019 Legislative Session. In the bill, a total of $1.7 million was allocated to the Department of Forestry for the 2019-2021 biennium.
Immediately following the adjournment of the Legislative Session, co-conveners of the SOD task force, Representative David Brock Smith (R-Port Orford) and Representative Caddy McKeown (D-Coos Bay) wrote the State Forester to request that $50,000 of the $1.7 million be allocated to staffing the ongoing work of the task force through AOC-County Solutions to coordinate county integrated pest management programs to combat SOD.
In their letter, Smith and McKeown point to the necessity and success of the task force, “the SOD task force has been one of the driving forces behind efforts to secure funding and keep SOD at the attention of our federal and state partners as well as the Legislature.”
AOC-County Solutions has convened the SOD task force since 2017, and has previously received state allocations to finance associated management and administrative costs of the SOD task force. AOC-County Solutions anticipates the allocation will continue.
For additional information on Sudden Oak Death from the Oregon Department of Forestry, click here.
Contributed by: Megan Chuinard | Public Affairs Associate