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83rd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2025 Regular Session
House Joint Memorial 11
Sponsored by Representatives OWENS, BREESE-IVERSON
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject
to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s brief statement of the essential features of the
measure as introduced. The statement includes a measure digest written in compliance with applicable readability
standards.
Digest: Asks the federal government to make changes in laws to prevent wildfires. (Flesch
Readability Score: 60.7).
Urges Congress and federal agencies to adopt land management reforms that will improve the
prevention and mitigation of wildfires on federal lands.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of the Interior, the United States
Secretary of Agriculture and the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States
of America, in Congress assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legisla-
tive session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas catastrophic wildfires threaten life and property directly, placing communities and
homes at risk of destruction, destroying wildlife habitat, impacting water quality and emitting large
quantities of greenhouse gases; and
Whereas the 2020s have seen an unprecedented number of wildfires throughout Oregon and the
greater western United States; and
Whereas Oregon wildfires have grown more rapidly in this decade than throughout this state’s
entire history; and
Whereas severe drought, prolonged heat waves and overly dense forests have resulted in more
catastrophic fires that have been more difficult to manage than ever before, leading to previously
unheard-of destruction and loss of human life; and
Whereas of the estimated 538 million acres of federal forest land, the United States Forest Ser-
vice reports that 63 million acres of land under its control are prone to catastrophic wildfire due
to chronically overgrown or dead timber fuel loads, while the United States Department of the In-
terior has estimated that there are 54 million high-risk acres on the land for which it is responsible;
and
Whereas decades-old laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species
Act and the Clean Air Act have created unnecessary red tape in managing federal lands to reduce
wildfire risks; and
Whereas meaningful federal reforms will lift barriers to increase the pace, scope and scale of
proactive forest management practices like prescribed burns to reduce economically and environ-
mentally devastating wildfires; and
Whereas land management reforms for the prevention and mitigation of wildfires will save
countless lives, property and natural resources in Oregon and throughout the western United States;
now, therefore,
NOTE: Matter in boldfaced type in an amended section is new; matter [ italic and bracketed] is existing law to be omitted.
New sections are in boldfaced type.
LC 4087
HJM 11
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Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
That we, the members of the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly, respectfully urge the President
of the United States, the United States Secretary of the Interior, the United States Secretary of
Agriculture and the Congress of the United States to work to remove legislative and regulatory
barriers to active forest management and to adopt meaningful reforms that will improve prevention
and mitigation of wildfires on federal lands; and be it further
Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the President of the United States, the
United States Secretary of the Interior, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, the Senate Ma-
jority Leader, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and each member of the Oregon Con-
gressional Delegation.
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