Oregon Environmental Council

Deschutes County: La Pine and Sunriver
Request: $20,000

This project will support community resilience and cleaner air for thousands of residents and school children in Deschutes County. Funds will provide air filters to two rural schools (both of which are also emergency shelters) in Sunriver and La Pine, creating a healthy indoor environment for students on smoky days and for wildfire evacuees. This grant will also enable OEC to do a statewide survey of schools in wildfire-prone areas to identify their need for similar investments, and we will share that information with state and local decision makers.

Wildfire smoke contains tiny soot particles that bond with toxic benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein, and nitrogen oxides. These particles penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, triggering acute respiratory issues and increasing children’s lifetime risk of heart attacks, strokes, cancer and premature death. The Oregon Health Authority recently took steps to adopt a stricter air quality standard for moving recess and other outdoor school activities indoors. However, school districts lack data that confirms that indoor air quality is cleaner than outdoor smoky air, and if so, by how much. Funding for air filtration is also constrained by a notoriously complex calculation of state and local operational revenue streams, as well as bonds for buildings and equipment that must be planned years in advance. 

Central Oregon has consistently had some of the state’s worst air quality. Between 2013 and 2025, Bend experienced 31 days that were “Unhealthy for All,” 10 “Very Unhealthy” and eight “Hazardous” (when everyone should stay indoors). This project will include schools in La Pine and Sun River that serve lower-income communities and are in the wildland-urban interface, surrounded by fire-prone forest or rangeland. In developing this project, we’ve engaged concerned local parents within the district as well as district officials and local and state elected officials who recognize this need.