PORTLAND, Oregon — The Beachie Creek Fire burned thousands of acres of the Santiam State Forest in 2020. It damaged and destroyed homes, roads and millions of trees. In the years since, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) has led a massive effort to replant the trees lost in the fire.
ODF just announced that the effort is now complete, with 2.3 million trees planted since late 2020.
“We have planted roughly 2.3 million trees, and it has taken four years to do it,” said John Walter with ODF.
Walter said crews spent the rainy months of the four years planting seedlings, the ideal time of year to plant. Much of the work was done on challenging terrain made more difficult by weather conditions.
“So, it’s raining sideways in rain gear and boots and trying not to slide as you are walking up a really steep hill,” he described.
Some of the higher elevation areas of the Santiam State Forest were deemed too dangerous for crews to plant seedlings by hand.
The solution? ODF contracted a plane to drop seeds from the sky.
“We did about 4,000 acres from the air of kind of that worst-of-the-worst, as far as safety for planters,” explained Walter.
The news comes as ODF tries to pay off the bills from the expensive 2024 wildfire season, where a record 1.9 million acres of land burned across Oregon — nearly double the acreage burned in 2020. The Oregon Department of Treasury declined to loan ODF $60 million dollars to help pay off the $317 million dollar price tag.
“Right now, our plan is to request another an additional $83 million from our emergency board in December,” said Joy Krawczyk with ODF. That funding is meant to bridge the gap before ODF will ask the Oregon Legislature for more funding in the 2025 legislative session.
A task force will also present possible changes in the legislative session to the way wildfire funding is structured.
“Funding to cover wildfire response is an enormous concern for us and has been for several years now,” added Krawczyk.