Emergency Board Approves Funding Requests to Support Agencies
During Unprecedented 2026 Fire Season
By Oregon House Republican Caucus,
SALEM, Ore. — As of August 20, reported 2026 fire season costs totaled approximately $236.2 million. With federal assistance grants, contributions, and cost recoveries, anticipated net costs are roughly $157.4 million. Current estimates put total emergency fire costs at about $350 million.
“As Eastern and Central Oregon had the worst twenty-one-plus days of fire on the landscape, it is with gratitude to all those who sacrificed to keep our communities safe. This includes, but is not limited to, the Rural Fire Protection Agencies, Rural Fire Districts, Oregon State Fire Marshal, Oregon Department of Forestry, our federal partners, and our local community members who put their lives and businesses on hold to serve their communities and our state. We have a responsibility to ensure they have the resources and support they need to protect Oregon communities,” said Representative Mark Owens (R-Crane).
The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) originally requested $77.9 million from the General Fund for 2026, with two Emergency Board special-purpose appropriations to cover a portion of projected costs. The agency must pay gross fire costs before receiving expected federal revenue, which can take years to process.
ODF intends to take out three loans, totaling $150 million, from the Oregon State Treasury — a means established in HB 3940 (2025) — to ensure solvency and settle vendor payments through December 2026.
Today, ODF received $77,872,644 from the General Fund via the two special-purpose allocations made to the E-Board, with an additional $30 million from the Emergency Fund. The E-Board also raised ODF’s expenditure limit for Other Funds by $250,000,000 for processing payments related to the 2026 fire season.
ODF says the additional funding will “help with the agency’s cash flow through December 2026, cover additional net costs beyond projections, and potentially lessen the need for the anticipated Treasury borrowing.”
Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance and Wallowa Resources both received federal grants — $630,349 and $100,000, respectively — through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program that ODF has agreed to facilitate. These grants are accounted for through the increased expenditure limit for Other Funds.
The E-Board also allocated $15 million from the General Fund via a special-purpose allocation to the Department of the State Fire Marshal, and increased the agency’s Other Funds expenditure limit by $13 million for 2026 fire season costs.
“We are currently experiencing the worst fire season in Oregon’s history, and the men and women who fought it — ODF, the State Fire Marshal, our Rangeland Fire Protection Associations, our contractors — deserve to be paid, on time and in full. I’m proud to make sure that happens.
I’m not proud that we’re here again. We keep paying for fire on the back end because we refuse to invest on the front end. Thin the overgrown forests. Legalize the ponds that put water on a fire fast. Bring back grazing and reseeding. Prevention is cheaper than catastrophe, and rural Oregon pays the difference,” said Representative Vikki Breese-Iverson (R-Prineville).
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