Union County to receive $825,094 in renewed federal forest funding

Union County is set to receive $825,094.92 in renewed federal forest funding, money that can help keep rural roads passable, shore up school budgets and support wildfire preparedness in a county where federal forest land limits the local tax base.

The new payment is part of a $248 million Secure Rural Schools round the U.S. Forest Service announced for fiscal year 2025. Wallowa County will receive $959,068.67, bringing the two-county total to $1,684,163.59 from the Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests. Oregon counties as a whole are slated to receive nearly $48.7 million.

For Union County, the latest award is not an isolated check. It comes on top of the February allocation of $756,171.87, making the county’s new FY2025 payment $68,923.05 higher than that earlier round. Wallowa County’s FY2025 amount is $56,323.42 lower than its February allocation of $1,015,392.09. Together, the two counties’ new round is $87,400.37 below the February total, underscoring how the payments can shift from one federal accounting round to the next even as they remain vital to local budgets.

The Secure Rural Schools program was built for counties like Union and Wallowa, where federal land ownership narrows the property-tax base but still leaves local governments responsible for roads, schools and public safety. The Forest Service says the program supports more than 700 counties and Puerto Rico, and that it manages about 196 million acres of National Forest System land nationwide. The agency said the FY2025 payments help sustain public schools, maintain local roads, strengthen wildfire preparedness and support other essential services.

The latest money also reflects how fragile the program had become. Secure Rural Schools lapsed in September 2023 after Congress stalled, and counties did not receive payments since early 2024 until the program was reauthorized. The Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act was signed into law on Dec. 19, 2025, after the Senate unanimously passed the bill in November 2024.

Wyden, who first authored the law in 2000, said the program has brought nearly $4 billion to Oregon counties since then. For Union County, the renewed flow is more than a budget line. It is a reminder that when federal forest payments stop, the pressure lands quickly on local roads, school districts and wildfire readiness across Northeast Oregon.