Officials say it will cost about $27 million to rehabilitate public land in and near Malheur County that was charred by a pair of megafires last summer.
The needed work includes reseeding the rangeland with native grass, treating invasive weeds and replacing miles of burned fencing.
The megafires – the term for blazes that exceed 100,000 acres – ripped through private and public land.
The Durkee Fire, started by lightning July 17, was Oregon’s biggest wildfire this year. The deliberate-ly-set Cow Valley Fire scorched over two square miles of private and public land in Malheur County. The land is essential to feed thousands of cows that drive the area’s most significant, most profitable industry: cattle ranching.
Last month, in a presentation to the Malheur County Court, Shane DeForest, Vale BLM district manager, noted that along with the Durkee and Cow Valley megafires, there were nearly 60 wildfires in the district in 2024.
The blazes devastated the rangeland, according to DeForest. He said over 350,000 BLM acres burned while about 320,000 acres of private land was blackened.
DeForest said that 143 grazing allotments and 400 grazing permits have been affected in the Vale district.
DeForest told county commissioners that whether an area is reopened for grazing depends on the recovery in a specific location.
During the summer, even before the blazes were contained, the BLM formed a team to begin assessing the fire damage and recommend steps to rehabilitate the land. The Burned Area Emergency Response group has issued their findings on the damage to the public land.
Larisa Bogardus, Vale BLM public relations officer, said work is underway by the agency to rehabilitate the rangeland. She said this includes repairing damage to the land incurred in fighting the fires. Crews are removing hazardous trees, repairing fencing and roads, and replacing culverts.
In addition, a primary task of the crews is preventing invasive grasses, such as medusahead and cheatgrass, from resurging in the burned land. The idea, Bogardus said, is to help native and desirable plants that are food sources for cattle and more resistant to fire.
She said just over 60,000 burned acres have been treated for invasive grasses, in areas including Dry Lake, Board Corral, Riv-er, Soldier Creek, Badland Complex, and portions of Hole in the Ground fires.
She said the Vale District BLM hopes to treat over 100,000 acres for invasive grasses in burn areas before February. These areas include more than 40,000 acres in the Cow Valley burn scar, just over 35,000 acres in the Durkee burn area and more than 25,000 acres where the Hole in the Ground Fire burned, west of Jordan Valley.
RESEEDING
Ground and aerial seeding has been recommended in the Cow Valley and Durkee fire areas.
The cost of ground seed-ing for the Durkee Fire is estimated at $1.1 million, while the cost to reseed the Cow Valley burn area is projected at $1.3 million, according to the BLM assessment group’s report.
Bogardus said BLM crews are working on reseeding burn areas from 2022 fires that were scheduled for rehabilitation.
She said the Vale District has plans to conduct aerial reseeding in the Durkee and Cow Valley burn areas. Bogardus said the district has seed on hand and more ordered. It’s unclear when the work will begin and how many acres the agency can reseed, she said.
“The new funding will allow us to contract for the helicopter support. Our he-li-tack crew provides the labor,” she said. “As long as supplies and conditions allow, we plan to seed through February.”
She said the cost to treat a burn area for invasive species can run as high as $60 per acre.
FENCING
Christensen said fencing would be one of the most significant expenses from the fires.
The BLM report estimated that it would cost about $1.4 million to repair or replace fences, gates and cattleguards in the Durkee Fire, while such work in the Cow Valley Fire area would cost around $700,000.
If funding is received, the BLM plans to replace 92 miles of fence in the Cow Valley burn, and 216 miles in the Durkee burn.
Bogardus said the agency has requested money to install temporary fences for burn areas that include the Cow Valley, Durkee, Dry Lake, Hole in the Ground and Little Valley Fires.
Bogardus said it’s hard to estimate the costs of replacing fences since the burn severity varies. She said, for instance, that an entire fence originally constructed with wood posts might have to be replaced. She said that a new fence can cost up to $15,000 a mile.
BURN SEVERITY
The BLM report assessed the damage to the soil from the Durkee and Cow Valley fires. The report noted how badly the soil was charred, how quickly the area’s vegetation recovers, and how prone the ground will be to erosion.
The BLM team used satellite maps and inspected the vegetation on the ground, according to the report. The group found that most of the ground covered by the Durkee and Cow Valley fires was actually unburned or had a low burn severity.
IMPACT ON RANCHERS
Meantime, Christensen said ranchers in the area feel the response of federal agencies to fire restoration has been sluggish. While help is available from the U.S. Farm Service Agency or other government entities, ranchers are forced to come up with the costs out of their pockets and then wait for reimbursements that are not guaranteed.
Many ranchers, Christensen said, are instead helping one another out where they can while local charities have stepped up to ease the financial hit.
Christensen noted con-cerns raised during a recent meeting in Vale, held to help connect ranchers with possible resources.
Christensen said one representative of a federal agency told the crowd there was a slow response was because of Malheur County’s sparse population. Christensen said he was told that Hurricane Helene hit densely populated areas, prompting a swift response by the government. Malheur County, with a fraction of the population, is “politically insignificant,” Christensen said.
“We don’t have a lot of clout when it comes to the federal government,” he said.
Oregon’s congressional delegation, which includes two senators and six representatives, is waiting to hear back from the Biden Administration about Gov. Tina Kotek’s request for a major disaster declaration. In an Oct. 24 letter, the delegation urged the administration to work with Kotek’s office to ensure that state, tribal and local governments could access federal resources through FEMA’s Public Assistance.
In a Friday, Nov. 22, email, Hank Stern, a spokesman for Sen. Ron Wyden, said the delegation is waiting for an answer supporting Kotek’s request.
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