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83rd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2025 Regular Session
Senate Joint Memorial 9
Sponsored by Senator BONHAM
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 U.S. President and the heads of two federal agencies to do all that they can
to help prevent, mitigate and suppress wildfires in this state. (Flesch Readability Score:60.3).
Urges the President, the United States Secretary of the Interior and the United States Secretary
of Agriculture to direct federal agencies to be as aggressive as possible in preventing, mitigating
and suppressing wildfires on federal lands.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of the Interior and the United
States Secretary of Agriculture:
We, your memorialists, the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legisla-
tive session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
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 in Oregon’s rural and urban communities; and
Whereas Oregon wildfires have killed at least 13 people, burned more than 2 million acres and
destroyed thousands of homes since 2019; and
Whereas the 2020 Labor Day fires in Santiam Canyon claimed the lives of five Oregonians,
leaving survivors devastated and struggling to recover and rebuild in the years since; and
Whereas stalled investigations into the origins of the 2020 Labor Day fires by the United States
Forest Service, the State Forestry Department and various county agencies have left survivors
baffled, disappointed and disillusioned; and
Whereas survivors of Oregon’s historically destructive wildfires deserve answers, accountability
and assurances for the future from the state and federal agencies responsible for managing wildfires
in this state; and
Whereas evolving strategies for the prevention, mitigation and suppression of wildfires will save
countless lives, property and natural resources in Oregon and throughout the western United States;
now,therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
That we, the members of the Eighty-third Legislative Assembly, urge the President of the United
States, the United States Secretary of the Interior and the United States Secretary of Agriculture
to direct federal agencies to be as aggressive as possible in preventing, mitigating and suppressing
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 3939 SJM9
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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, to
the United States Secretary of the Interior and to the United States Secretary of Agriculture.
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