Oregon’s wildfire map is again headed for the trash, and this time it might stay there.
After years of working to chart the areas in the most danger of wildfires, Oregon lawmakers are conceding that the effort provoked too much opposition among rural communities and endangered political support for the rest of their wildfire programs.
At a House hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers from both parties got behind S.B. 83, a bill that would repeal the wildfire map — along with the extra regulations it would have required for buildings in hazardous areas. The Senate voted in April to approve that bill unanimously. Democrats control both chambers in the state Legislature.
“This map was hopelessly dividing Oregonians at a time when we need a united focus on our wildfire challenge,” said state Sen. Jeff Golden, one of the architects of the state’s mapping program and now the sponsor of the bill to end it.
