As Wildfires Devastate the West, Wyden, Merkley Urge Feds to Make Grazing Flexibility and Recovery Assistance Available

Senators' letter to Interior Secretary: "Together, we can ensure that these rural communities receive the federal support they need to recover and continue to play a critical role as important partners for natural resource management"

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today they are urging the Department of the Interior to support Governor Kotek's request for emergency authorizations to allow flexibility in grazing schedules and use alternative grazing areas in response to the current wildfire disaster in Oregon.

"The grazing flexibility requested by Governor Kotek will be an incredibly important lifeline to our rural communities that have been devastated by these wildfire disasters," Wyden and Merkley wrote to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. "Together, we can ensure that these rural communities receive the federal support they need to recover and continue to play a critical role as important partners for natural resource management."

Wyden and Merkley's letter to Secretary Haaland comes shortly after the senators expressed their support for Governor Kotek's request to the Department of Agriculture for a Secretarial Disaster Designation that would authorize emergency haying and grazing. As Oregon faces a dangerous and challenging megafire season, which has already burned well more than a million acres of public and private lands, support from both the Interior and Agriculture departments is urgently needed.

Wyden and Merkley have worked with Oregon communities and Senate colleagues to address the catastrophic wildfires raging across the state and the entire West. Most recently, Wyden introduced the Grid Resilience Improvement through Dedicated Assistance Act, a bill that would adequately fund public utilities to make energy grids more resilient against climate disasters, such as megafires. Building on Merkley and Wyden's leadership, Congress passed a robust FY24 funding package, which included roughly $4 billion in wildfire suppression, $7 million in wildfire smoke mitigation, and $31 million in forest restoration for Oregon and nationwide, and continued the pay raise for the federal firefighting workforce provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The text of the letter is here.

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