Members from the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Incident Management Team (IMT) 1 inbriefed today in Lane County to assist in the recovery from the recent ice storm.
Though ODF is normally associated with wildfire response, the agency’s IMTs are trained in all-hazard response and are ready for any emergency year-round. The members will be sharing their knowledge and experience with local emergency management personnel so that they can continue to support their communities after the team leaves. In addition to the IMT personnel assisting in Lane County, ODF staff across the state are helping their communities in a variety of ways, such as clearing downed trees.
“I’m still regularly in awe of all the ways ODF serves Oregonians,” said State Forester Cal Mukumoto, who is also ODF’s director. “The forestry work we do every day is critically important to Oregonians and their natural resources, but we find ourselves involved with emergency response and management more and more. I’m just grateful we have people with the training and experience who can help others in times of great need.”
This is not the first time that ODF’s IMT members have been deployed for a non-fire incident. A similar deployment occurred in 2020 when IMTs spent several weeks assisting the Office of Emergency Management with the statewide COVID-19 response. More recently, in April 2023, a few members were deployed to assist Curry County after a cyber-attack compromised their system. ODF personnel have also deployed in support of emergency response to hurricanes and floods, along with many wildfires both nationally and internationally.
