Southern Oregon nonprofits grapple with loss of millions for wildfire mitigation

In a slight reprieve, small amounts of previously frozen funds have been released for select projects and state agencies have provided replacement funding in some scenarios.

Lomakatsi Restoration Project Executive Director Marko Bey said his organization, which focuses on forest health through fuels reduction and workforce development initiatives, faces an immediate pause on $10 million in funds for fuels reduction projects with Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) origins.

Lomakatsi has an additional $21 million in fire mitigation projects halted for the planned Rogue Bear All-Lands Restoration Project, which would treat 8,500- to 10,000 acres of private land in the Rogue Basin.

“Some 15 full-time employees — including crew members, foresters and wildland fire professionals — we had to put on temporary layoff last week with more guaranteed if the freeze continues,” Bey said.

All told, some 40,000 acres of forest restoration work and seven timber sales are now stalled, creating an urgent situation and increased wildland fire threat for the region.

With some 65% of his organization’s budget comprising BIL and IRA funds — through more than 30 awards and agreements between Lomakatsi and the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the National Park Service, Bey said his organization would not be reimbursed for completed or in-progress work until further notice.

“We have cooperative agreements (and committed funding) that go through 2030,” Bey said.

“For this operating season, there is $10 million dollars in our budget — 65% of our budget — that has been frozen and many of those funds were for active projects.”

Bey did note that $2 million in BIL funding through the USFWS Office of Wildland Fire was restored late last week. The money is targeted for ecological fuels reduction in the wildland urban interface west of Bear Creek and the Interstate 5 corridor from Talent to Jacksonville, along with the Ashland Forest All-Lands Restoration Project area.

The reprieve allowed some 900 acres of pile burning across 45 private landowner properties to resume.

Bey, who sent letters to various state leaders, said he was relieved for burn pile work to resume, despite already missing a month’s worth of pile burning due to the recent winter freeze in early February.

Bey and others, including the American Loggers Council, have written letters and made phone calls urging state and national leaders for exemption from the funding freeze for forestry and fuels reduction efforts in the region.

Rogue Watershed Council loses over $2 million

Rogue Watershed Council, based in Central Point, reported that multiple ecological restoration projects — ranging in cost between $80,000 and $1.6 million each — were halted through a combination of funding cuts and the federal freeze.

All told, the projects are estimated to have brought between $7 and $30 million in economic impact to the region, said community engagement project manager Beth Boos.

Boos said loss of funding was “greatly concerning to our crucial work in Southern Oregon for 2025 and beyond.” She said her agency planned seven restoration projects in areas throughout the region, including Elk Creek, West Fork Trail Creek and North Fork Little Butte Creek, with five of the seven projects now in limbo.

“Most of these projects rely on at least one federal grant to cover the cost of the restoration work, and the total amount of funding from federal grants for 2025 restoration work is just over $2 million,” Boos said in a written statement to the Rogue Valley Times.

“Until we can confirm that these grant funds will be available, our staff has made difficult decisions to postpone five of the seven projects. … We are dedicated to the restoration of Rogue River watersheds, but we cannot move forward with most of our near-term projects without confidence that we will receive the awarded funds,” she said.

Siskiyou Mountain Club loses almost $400,000

Talent-based Siskiyou Mountain Club reported this week that nearly $400,000 in funding — for crucial restoration of remote trail systems compromised by fire damage — is now on hold. Some have been paused while others were lost entirely, according to Executive Director Gabe Howe.

Howe said he received word in recent weeks that $320,000 from the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council was “on pause” until further notice, and a $50,000 agreement with the Pacific Crest Trail Association would no longer be funded.

Howe said he had been told by representatives from Rep. Cliff Bentz’s office that Bentz “supports the government paying invoices on agreements that have already been signed and authorized,” which Howe said has not yet been the case.

Bentz represents the 2nd District in Congress that includes Jackson and Josephine counties.

“I don’t know how to frame it other than the administration isn’t paying their bills,” Howe said Monday, noting that his organization would move forward “under the worst-case scenario premise that we will not have any federal revenue in 2025.”

“We’ve made cuts to hours but are keeping the team we’re committed to and are hiring fewer interns for the 2025 season. We’re meeting in the middle by growing community support,” Howe told the Times.

“With that, we have a donor who has pledged to match up to $50,000 in donations we get from new and returning members between now and June 1. (Siskiyou Mountain Club) isn’t going anywhere. We run on passion, grit and old-school business principles of trust, respect and results.”

OUR Community Forestry loses more than a half-million

In another big hit for the region, some $600,000 from Arbor Day Foundation funding for Talent-based Our Community Forestry is no longer available.

OUR Community Forestry founder Mike Oxendine said the funds were part of $75 million granted to the Arbor Day Foundation via USFS to help disadvantaged communities plant trees.

All 105 of the foundation’s sub-awardees were notified that funding had been cut.

Oxendine was awarded funding in two $300,000 increments to restore community tree canopies destroyed by the 2020 wildfires. His organization had completed 14 projects, with another 40 underway around the region.

“This grant serviced 85,000 people in Jackson County who are considered disadvantaged,” Oxendine said Monday.

“The 40 we had already scheduled, people already picked their trees and we had scheduled subcontractors for stump grinding, tree removal work and site preparation.”

Oxendine said the funding loss had been slightly tempered by some regional and state support.

“The Oregon Department of Forestry has stepped up in a huge way and helped close (part of the) funding grant we just lost. We just got word that we got $190,000 from (ODF) Urban Forestry for the projects that we had already started,” he said.

Additionally, Oxendine said the Oregon Department of Land Conservation had pledged $131,000 to ensure planned tree plantings along Highway 99 through Phoenix, which lost much of its tree canopy during the 2020 Almeda Fire.

“This program wasn’t just about planting trees — it was about making Southern Oregon more resilient by addressing wildfire restoration, economic revitalization and urban heat disparities,” Oxendine said. “These funds would have helped residents who simply don’t have the resources to remove hazardous trees, plant new ones or maintain the ones they have. We made a commitment to serve our community, and now, the federal government is forcing us to break that promise.”

“The Inflation Reduction Act was designed to provide resources to communities in need, with bipartisan approval from Congress,” he said. “OUR Community Forestry believes that defunding this work is not only a betrayal of those commitments but a dangerous precedent that threatens the ability of nonprofits, contractors, and local organizations to trust federal funding processes.”