Think Out Loud

Northwest Forest Service prepares for fire season

By Sage Van Wing (OPB)
April 29, 2021 7:03 p.m. Updated: April 30, 2021 8:45 p.m.

Broadcast: Friday, April 30

A hot, dry spring has led many in the Pacific Northwest to worry about this year’s fire season. In some ways, for Glenn Casamassa, the last fire season never ended. Casamassa is the regional forester for the Forest Service region 6. He’s tasked with preparing for this year’s wildfires while still recovering from the last one. We talk to Casamassa about how the forest service is facing fire, climate change, and a new federal administration.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

Contact “Think Out Loud®”

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983. The call-in phone number during the noon hour is 888-665-5865.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:
THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:
THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

Related Stories

A northern spotted owl in the old growth forest of Oregon

Developers of the Northwest Forest Plan urge permanent protection for mature forests

The health and vitality of forest ecosystems in the Northwest, and how much timber should be cut from those forests, is laid out in the Northwest Forest Plan. But that plan was created in the mid-1990s, and has not changed substantially since then, says Norm Johnson, one of its developers. He and his longtime colleague, Jerry Franklin, recently penned an opinion piece in The Register-Guard newspaper, opposing the planned logging of about 2,000 acres of mature trees in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest.

Vaccine demand dropping in Umatilla County despite move back to ‘high risk’

Umatilla County’s vaccination rate is about 23%, according to the Oregon Health Authority’s data dashboard. That's the lowest vaccination rate in the state. And Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced earlier this week that the county will move back into the COVID-19 “high risk” category. Still, the county has seen a decline in residents attending mass vaccination sites. It has told the state that it does not need additional Moderna doses. We hear from Joseph Fiumara, the county’s public health director, about the challenges facing the region.