It could happen here

New power lines in Forest Park would add to fire danger

Long before infernos roared through Los Angeles, Portlanders feared fire would destroy Forest Park, their singular 5,000-acre wilderness refuge. Portland General Electric’s current plans to erect high-voltage transmission lines through the park only add fuel to those fears.

“LA looks exactly how we could look in a few seconds,” said Ann Ruttan, who lives along Northwest Skyline Boulevard in the park.

“That could easily happen here,” she said, a thought that troubles her “every night when I go to bed.”

Ruttan knows more about the risks than most. She was in Santiam Canyon in 2020 when the skies darkened at 4 p.m. and three towns were destroyed by flames. That inspired her to join and co-chair the Forest Park South chapter of Firewise, a Portland Fire & Rescue program mobilizing citizens against wildfire threats. They knock on doors, remove flammable materials near buildings and try to get the message out that even small measures can make a difference.

Ruttan’s Firewise co-chair, Ralph Brooks, agrees with her assessment.

“There were many comments on NextDoor to the effect that it could never happen here,
Brooks said. “It absolutely could happen here. Look at the Santiam Pass fire.

“Climate change is a reality, especially here in the late fall,” he added. “We didn’t used to have such conditions here.”

While Firewise volunteers root out dangers close to the ground, PGE intends to run high-voltage lines through the forest. Though power lines are not the leading cause of forest fires, they have been linked to many of the worst.

“Eight of the most destructive fires in California history were power line-ignited,” said Ralph Bloemers, executive producer of the documentary, “Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire.”

Is a conflagration more likely if the PGE project goes through?

A Portland hearings officer considered testimony on PGE’s application Jan. 29, but his ruling

will be based on the Forest Park Natural Resources Management Plan, which does not have a measurable standard for fire potential.

For that matter, no scientific assessment of added fire risk due to the power lines has been conducted. Those risks would rise in four categories, however, according to a broad consensus of informed opinion.

1 Contact with power lines

Overhead power lines can ignite fires if they come into contact with trees or other combustibles. That is why a 125-foot-wide swath of the forest, ultimately about 20 acres, would be cleared to reduce the possibility of trees falling onto lines or of towers tipping over under severe conditions. The risks are reduced by removing or pruning trees, managing undergrowth and insulating wires, but they cannot be eliminated.

According to the official report of the Portland Bureau of Development Services released Jan. 17:

“The addition of new transmission lines introduces risk of wildfire into an area. According to an article from the journal of Electric Power Systems Research, “Power line faults are one of the major sources of wildfire ignitions. Downed lines, vegetation contact, conductor slap or component failures can produce fault currents and sparks that may ignite fires under hot, dry and windy conditions.”

2 Drying the forest

The clearing would interrupt the tree canopy, bringing direct sunlight to the forest floor, thereby drying the ground, grass and trees. The park would be more susceptible to ignition, which would burn more rapidly and intensely than in an uninterrupted forest.

“It would dry out the edges of the canopy, increasing the area of even higher wildfire risk,” Brooks said.

Carole Hardy, who teaches environmental policy at Portland State University, is also a spokesperson for the Forest Park Conservancy.

“Once you start cutting the forest, you can’t go back,” Hardy said.

Removing a swath of the forest would introduce invasive plants and wildlife, compromising the ecosystem.

“Construction of logging roads that are proposed will compact and erode soils on these highly steep slopes,” Hardy said.

Bloemers, who believes PGE has been responsible in the past by shutting down power transmission during periods of high risk, nevertheless said, “creating large openings in the forest will cause drying.”

According to the BDS report:

“Expansion of the power line corridor threatens to exacerbate the spread of invasive species present in existing clearcuts, which poses a threat to the local ecology and increases wildfire risk. Any time mature trees are removed, carbon sequestration is lost and forest vulnerability to high wind, ice and wildfire increases.”

3 Delayed detection

A fire ignited in the heart of the park would not be seen as readily as one along a suggested alternative route parallel to U.S. Highway 30, where a steady flow of motorists with cellphones would probably tip off fire departments within minutes.

“This will be dependent upon community observation,” said Rick Graves, public information officer for Portland Fire & Rescue. “With the proximity of Forest Park to Portland and all the regular use, our alert will come from a 911 call or notification from a park ranger while working within the park.”

4 Response difficult

A wildfire in Forest Park could be reached only by small-scale fire vehicles via fire lanes, and not most of those. Had PGE heeded a recommendation from a consultant, it could have located the lines along the highway, where large fire trucks could reach it.

Graves explained some of the limitations involved in fighting fires in the park, where the bureau uses small “brush unit” fire trucks and ATVs.

“These are all useful tools, but the reality is, the topography and vegetation is ever changing in Forest Park,” he said. “Some of the fire lanes within the park are now quite grown over and impassable through any means but hiking in, even if it says ‘fire lane’ on a map.

“Each year we get a few smaller fires within the boundaries of the park, and through the use of our ATVs, backpack bladders and long, high-pressure wildland-style hoses, we have been able to keep these small.”

Needless to say, “they have not been the large fires that the greater LA area has recently experienced,” he said.

For that, Thurman Bridge Firewise captain Nora Gruber, could only say, “We have been very, very lucky.”

The best human interventions may not be enough.

“The public has unfair expectations of the firefighters and what they can do,” Bloemers said.

He and Gruber still think the public should focus on the risk-reduction strategies of Firewise, which they believe have a better chance of making a difference compared to taking on a utility company. But why neglect a known risk-magnifier just because other sources may be more common?

Should Portland add to the known fire risk in the park?

“I think that’s asking the right question,” Ruttan said. “Tell PGE to get their power line out of Forest Park.”