March 9, 2023 10:50 a.m. 

This week Senator Ron Wyden sounded the alarm at a Senate hearing on the impact of the climate crisis, increasingly dangerous wildfires and the need for additional investments in the wildfire resilience workforce in Oregon and nationwide.

During a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, Wyden said, “The reality is these fires are not your grandfather’s fires. They are bigger, hotter, more powerful and we get them almost year round”.

Wyden asked Michael Wara, Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, about the need for additional federal investments in the wildfire resilience workforce and increased pay for firefighters.

Wara responded, “The Forest Service needs to offer competitive wages and they are moving in that direction. I think that’s really important and we need to double down on that”.

Wyden asked for a written report from the Climate and Energy Policy Program on how Congress can help further professionalize the wildfire resilience workforce with increased wages, training and technology.

Video of the full exchange at the hearing is linked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vU_50pyvbI