Your Daily Guide

Wildfire Risks Worsen Across the Region

This year's wildfire season has started earlier than usual and is expected to last longer because of the warm winter. Research shows that not all Northwest communities are equally equipped to withstand the impacts — and recent reporting flags federal wildfire prevention funding delays at a critical moment.

• Vulnerable communities: Researchers from Oregon State University and The Nature Conservancy reviewed wildfire risks in over 1,000 communities across the Northwest, using a "social vulnerability index" which factors in "household demographics, neighborhood structural density, housing types, and local transportation," according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle. The analysis shows roughly half of the communities are at greater wildfire risk than in other estimates because of socioeconomic factors that leave people less able to defend against wildfires and recover from damage quickly. [Oregon Capital Chronicle]
• Meanwhile: A Washington state land manager for nonprofit Columbia Land Trust is sounding the alarms about the slow rollout of federal dollars related to wildfire prevention across the country. Federal money granted through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program is being held up because of changes related to the Trump administration's "America First" initiatives, like "restrictions related to immigration, [and] diversity hiring." [NPR]
• Conditions and predictions: Dry vegetation across Oregon could lead to fires spreading more rapidly — there was already a 2,500-acre fire just outside of Bend earlier this month. AccuWeather predicts 65,000 to 80,000 wildfires burning between 5.5 and 8 million acres across the country this season. This amounts to fewer individual wildfires than last year, but more acres burned — meaning larger fires. [Axios / AccuWeather]