When Oregon Governor Kate Brown said "Revenge is a dish best served cold", she wasn't kidding, and apparently she didn't mean it was just one dish. The hits keep coming, from abuse of power, to creating police reform with inadequate stakeholder input. Now rural districts in Oregon are about to get burned, literally.

Among many things being chopped, or drastically reduced are; veterans affairs, housing, disability services, clean air Oregon, rebates and tax incentives, transportation, education, poacher and predator prevention services, gang task forces, two prisons, addiction help, and more. But the kicker might be wildfire mitigation and extinguishing needs.

Oregon is set to have record wildfires this year due to logging contracts gone unfulfilled, and an inappropriate forest management plan, which came after the Oregon Forestry Board was bound and gagged by environmental groups last year. Oregon was already falling behind in terms of proper practice for fire mitigation, and as fire crews lose vital funding, Oregon may lose its footing on fire season.

Governor Brown took to Twitter in order to remind Oregonians it's that time of year again, and perhaps set the stage for why Oregon is about to burn, yep, her go to villain "COVID-19".

What's possibly most perplexing about this photo, is that state parks are not yet open, especially to camping. So what's really going on here?

Oregon media is exclusively covering Portland mayhem, and while everybody is chatting about police reform bills, (which are being tabled until September) Oregon's legislature is making massive budget cuts starting Monday. The area that will see the steepest decline in funding is Natural Resources. The budget for Natural resources covers everything from farmer rebates, to poacher prevention. What's possibly most ironic is the deep cuts to "Oregon Clean Air", created after last year's famed HB 2007. A bill so drastic, thousands flocked to the capitol and created the grassroots group #TimberUnity, in order to fight it. That fight resulted in a walk out, and thus the promise of revenge by Kate Brown. If only leaders had a COVID-19 crystal ball, but as they say "hindsight is 2020".

Uncontrolled fires, pump millions of C0₂ ppm into the atmosphere per minute, and are one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions on the planet. Taking diesel trucks off the road, and stopping logging contracts seem sort of silly, in comparison. Had the super majority spent the better part of last session actually working on ways to manage the rain forest, that is Oregon, we might not be in this situation right now. Time and time again we see how pandering to a base, rather than legislating, is costing valuable resources. This time the costs may become incalculable. Homes, farms, life, and many acres of timber will go up in flames if these budget cuts are not amended.


--Breeauna Sagdal

Post Date: 2020-08-10 06:54:24