Eastern Oregon Searches for Solutions in the Summer of ’26

By Alicia Zinni

Eastern Oregon’s summer of ’26 has been bleak as we watch decades of failed public land management policies go down in flames. Firefighters are throwing dwindling resources at walls of fire, while residents prepare to evacuate with little assurance they’ll have a home to return to. Months of dangerous smoke exposure exacerbate health conditions. And, everyone grieves and fears for their loved ones on the fireline as more firefighter injuries and deaths are reported. The need for a change couldn’t be more evident.

Photo courtesy of Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service (retired), Bugwood.org

But, how did it get so bad? It helps to understand that approximately 60 percent of eastern Oregon counties are public lands, primarily managed by the US Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management. These lands were once actively managed, which supported logging and ranching livelihoods along with a local custom and culture. But that all collapsed under decades of environmental preservation policies, leaving eastern Oregon counties with choked and unmanaged forests and grasslands that are vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire, especially when shifting weather patterns bring prolonged drought. Oregon’s punitive policies toward business left unemployed loggers, truckers, millworkers, and ranchers with few alternatives. These counties now have some of the highest rates of SNAP, Medicaid, and assisted housing recipients in the entire US.

Pressure to adopt preservation policies on Oregon’s national forests and grasslands started in the 1980s. Environmental groups and academia touted preservation as the scientifically supported replacement for previous multiple-use management strategies. Environmental groups became well organized and surprisingly well funded when promoting this narrative. Previous multiple-use strategies had assumed public lands could both protect important habitat and produce food and shelter for Americans. It supported jobs in logging and hauling timber, milling lumber, and family ranching. But these jobs collapsed under preservation policies, leaving residents options like flipping burgers in service of tourism, signing up for social services, or simply leaving. Land trust nonprofits formed to scoop up ownership of family-owned forests or ranches, adding to the public land hoard.

The promised bonanza of tourism jobs turned out to be low-wage seasonal jobs that couldn’t touch the financial security or work dignity of full-time family-wage jobs from logging and agriculture. As Oregon’s legislature adopted European-style socialism and net-zero greenhouse gas goals, established eastern Oregon businesses failed and new ones never formed. Oregon feeds the doom loop by raising personal and business taxes to fund its generous social service programs. Oregon’s strict environmental protection policies severely hamper re-establishing any industry that disturbs the ground, requires water, or creates a byproduct.

With the economic effects also came cultural consequences. Over a century of custom and culture had formed around families going to the woods to hunt, camp, cut firewood, pick berries and mushrooms or simply to drive around. This culture was demonized in the name of protecting endangered species from motorized disturbance. An influx of new people capitalized on cheaper land prices, affordable housing projects and well funded mental health group homes. This new populace failed to understand or appreciate the local culture. Resignation set in that a beloved way of life was dying.

But with the dubious covid national emergency of 2020, hope for a different future sparked. Eastern Oregon residents noticed that Idaho businesses thrived and personal rights persisted while Oregon punished any business, organization or person bucking the covid narrative. A possible solution emerged in moving the state border so eastern Oregon could be represented by Idaho. The grass-roots Citizens for Greater Idaho formed and placed questions on county ballots asking voters whether they support Oregon and Idaho leadership holding talks about moving the border. A total of 13 counties voted in favor. State border adjustments require approval from both legislatures and the US Congress. Idaho’s legislature passed a memorial stating their interest in talking, but Oregon’s supermajority Democratic Party legislature continues to stalemate any progress.

Large wildfires currently burning through eastern Oregon now emphasize the consequences of decades of anti-management preservation policies and show how badly eastern Oregon needs an exit strategy. As higher elevation timberland dries and contributes to the millions of acres already burned, relief will only come with winter snows. The ecological crisis purported by environmental organizations from grazing, logging, and motorized use of public land is now miniaturized by the catastrophic effects of wide-spread sterilizing wildfires. Still looming in the future is the inevitable soil movement and sedimentation after rain and snow fall on denuded slopes.

The full fruit of preservation policies is now due for harvest. Fuels build and feed sterilizing fires during the hottest days of the year. Grasslands untouched by livestock add to the fuel load. Closed roads remove loggers and locals from the woods and prevent fire crews from reaching spot fires, which turn into large project fires. Instead of contributing to their local economies, residents require ongoing state subsistence. The working class is shouldering the burden of laptop class ideals.

While these same decades of preservation policies at the national level mean that Idaho’s public lands have also suffered, Idaho’s leaders are supporting change. Idaho’s governor committed to accelerating active management on public lands by coordinating similar treatments on adjoining private land. Oregon’s leadership shows no interest in changing their environmental or taxing policies that currently constipate businesses.

Without companion efforts at the state level to support active forest and grassland management, eastern Oregon’s residents seem doomed to repeats of the summer of ’26. Moving the border would allow eastern Oregon to be represented by Idaho leaders who are working with federal counterparts to restore active management to public lands. Meanwhile, Oregon’s leaders hunker down in defense of preservation policies.

Recollecting its strong past of active forest and grassland management, eastern Oregon continues to search for solutions, albeit through a dim shroud of wildfire smoke.