5 Priorities for Oregon and Washington Legislators in 2025

Feb 13

*Chimacum Ridge Community Forest (Washington)*

In 2025, our staff is working hard in both the Oregon and Washington legislatures on efforts to:

Support microgrids
Protect drinking water at its source
Increase use of prescribed fire and cultural burns by landowners and Tribes
Fund the Washington Community Forests program
Address the wildfire crisis

1) Microgrids for Oregon

Oregon legislators have the opportunity to support rural communities by increasing their access to clean, reliable energy via microgrids. With the increasing risk of natural disasters, wildfires, and extreme weather events, microgrids are a critical solution for maintaining power and ensuring continuity of emergency services. Sustainable Northwest and its partners are advancing three bills – HB 2064, 2065, and 2066 – that will enable counties, cities, and Tribal governments to:

Assess their own energy resilience needs
Plan and implement community microgrid projects
Partner with private, public, or nonprofit entities or utilities to develop microgrids
Operate microgrids in both normal conditions and emergencies

You’re going to hear more about microgrids this year, because they are a crucial way to advance rural energy resilience and reliability. Learn more about microgrids here, and check out our testimony to Oregon legislators here.

2) Protect drinking water at its source

We’re asking Oregon legislators to continue supporting the Drinking Water Source Protection Grant Program. Legislators funded the program in the 2023-2025 biennium at $5 million with broad bipartisan support, and we’re asking them to do the same in 2025-2027 via HB 3341. Failure to protect source drinking watersheds in small communities forces cities and other water providers to invest heavily in costly water treatment facilities, ultimately passing the cost on to residents via increased taxes and fees. Unfortunately, demand far exceeds available resources: eight municipalities submitted $6.1 million in requests; over 20 communities identified more than $30 million worth of projects statewide; projects in Baker, Wasco, Clackamas, Douglas, Tillamook, Clatsop and Curry counties applied for the initial program; and many other projects are pursuing assistance. This voluntary state program plays a crucial role in securing federal funding and private investments at a ratio of more than 2:1.

3) Increase use of prescribed fire and cultural burns by landowners and Tribes in Washington

Pacific Northwest forests evolved with fire. In these “fire-adapted ecosystems,” some fires occurred naturally through lightning, while others were intentionally set by Tribes to steward healthy forest conditions. Now, several factors are coming together – warming temperatures, unhealthy forest conditions, and years of fire suppression – to create catastrophic fires instead of natural cycles. Prescribed fire can help.

Prescribed fire is an important management tool that can restore forests, making them more resilient by reducing the intensity of wildfires. In other words, when a landscape experiences periodic prescribed fire, future wildfires are less likely to become catastrophic. In Washington, private landowners who want to use prescribed fire to manage their land often shy away from it because securing insurance is difficult, and the perceived risks are high. Oregon landowners and Tribes faced similar barriers until last year, when Sustainable Northwest and partners worked with the Oregon Legislature to pass a law making it easier. Now we are doing the same in Washington.

HB 1563 encourages safe and effective use of prescribed fire by qualified professionals; provides compensation in the extremely rare event of an escaped fire so long as all rules and regulations were followed; and will help increase the availability and affordability of prescribed fire insurance.

4) Fully fund the community forest program in Washington

Community forests are owned and managed by local communities to meet diverse needs including clean drinking water, timber production, recreation and wildlife habitat. Washington has nearly 30 community forests – including Chimacum Ridge, which produced some of the wood for the Portland International Airport. Washington has a popular program to fund community forests , but unfortunately the Governor’s budget only included $3.1 million for the program, and great projects are poised to go unfunded We are working with the Washington Association of Land Trusts and other community forest partners in Washington to ask Washington legislators to fully fund the program at $26 million and secure an additional 16,000 acres to be managed for community goals.

5) Address the wildfire crisis in Oregon

In Oregon, more acres burned in the 2024 wildfire season than ever before – including 1 million acres of rangeland. We are advocating for the Oregon Legislature to provide stable funding to help communities respond to and prepare for catastrophic wildfires. Key priorities include: