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Hello Friends,
Greetings from your State Capital Office in Salem. The past
two weeks have been very busy! I wanted to touch base with you on a very important
topic, and one that I have been working on for some time. Sudden Oak Death is a
very serious pathogen and one that has increasingly negative economic impacts
to southwest Oregon communities. Like many bills that move through the
Legislature, partisanship does not play a roll, and votes on bills are
unanimous over 80% of the time. This bipartisanship is true in regards to
Sudden Oak Death as well, and I am grateful to Senator Merkley for agreeing to
Co-convene the SOD Task Force with me. As a former Speaker of the House of
Representatives, he has extensive knowledge of this harmful pathogen and understands
the impacts of its spread. His leadership on this issue is important in moving
solutions forward.
I began this work as a Curry County Commissioner in late 2015,
after the quarantine area expanded to 515 square miles in Curry County. We worked
quickly in early 2016, partnering with the ODA, ODF, OCZMA, Legislators and
others, and subsequently received $250k in state funding to assist in starting the
Task Force. Fifty thousand of those dollars were allocated as a block grant to
the Association of Oregon Counties to assist in facilitating the SOD Task Force.
AOC has done a fantastic job. With ongoing budget concerns, I have drafted a
bill, HB 3151 (CLICK
HERE) to maintain funding in the ODF budget for their SOD
program.
Last Friday, Senator Merkley and I convened the first SOD
Task Force in Portland and I appreciate all of those who participated. Senator
Merkley and I look forward to working with all of you. A copy of our joint press
release is below.
More to come and thank you for subscribing to my Legislative
Newsletters. It is an honor and a privilege to work for you and I thank you for
the opportunity. Please CLICK
HERE for my Week Six Video Update. Thank you, God Bless and don’t
hesitate to reach out.
Oregon Spirit: Putting aside partisanship to save our environment and
economy
By U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and State Rep. David Brock Smith
Oregon has
a long history of pioneering innovative ways to resolve pressing natural
resource issues. Our state was built by Americans who relied on the land for
their livelihood, and it has been protected and preserved by generations of
Oregonians who want to ensure we can all enjoy our state’s wild places and
public lands while putting people to work. It’s our Oregon spirit.
Today, the
southwestern corner of our state is facing an urgent environmental crisis that
will require that Oregon spirit to tackle and overcome.
Sudden Oak
Death is a devastating disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of tanoak
trees in Curry County. It was first detected there in 2001; about one-third of
the county has since been affected. In Oregon, it occurs only in the forests of
southwest Curry County, where a containment program is in place to slow the
spread. Additionally, a European virus, called EU1, has been detected in Curry
County; it harms evergreen trees.
If further
measures aren’t taken, Sudden Oak Death will spread north into Coos County,
west into Josephine County, and northeast into Douglas County in coming years.
In California, the disease has killed millions of oaks and tanoaks in the
coastal region from Monterey to Humboldt Counties. EU1 will compound the
destruction in Oregon.
With the
potential impacts on our local economy and environment, all of us — every level
of government, every industry group, every environmental group — must work
together to look for more and better solutions to eradicate these diseases.
We know
collaboration is the best way to address problems like this. That’s why in a
time of political divisiveness, we — a Democratic U.S. senator and Republican
state representative — are putting aside differences to take this urgent issue
head on.
Last week
we took the first step in this concerted effort and convened a task force whose
mission is to develop a collaboration-based action plan to contain the Sudden
Oak Death pathogen and eradicate the EU1 virus, using the best available
science. In true Oregon spirit, we had more than 40 partners from cities,
counties, federal agencies, and industry associations agree to ongoing
participation. We are grateful for the time and commitment they are
contributing toward this effort.
This
challenge is too great for one agency or one level of government to solve. Our
task force contains unique and expansive expertise on Sudden Oak Death, and it
will take all of us working together — as generations of Oregonians did before
us — to develop and implement science-based solutions, educate our neighbors,
preserve our environment, and save our economy.
Sudden Oak Death Task Force Participants
U.S.
Senator Jeff Merkley
Oregon
State Representative David Brock Smith
Cow Creek
Band of Umpqua Indians
Oregon
Department of Forestry
Oregon
Forest Industry Council
Oregon
State University
Curry
County
Coos County
Josephine
County
Douglas
County
City of
Gold Beach
Oregon
Association of Nurseries
Association
of Oregon Counties
U.S. Bureau
of Land Management
U.S.
Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service
U.S.
Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Plant
Health
U.S. Forest
Service
Yours truly,
Representative David Brock Smith
House District 1
Curry, Coos, Douglas & Josephine Counties
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1401
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-379, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.DavidBrockSmith@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/smithd
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