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Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) releases final wildfire hazard maps.

Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) released the final wildfire hazard maps on January 7, 2025. Creation of these wildfire maps is required under Senate Bill 762, which was passed in 2021 and contains various laws concerning wildfire hazard mitigation and response.

These newly released Oregon wildfire hazard maps show property designations for low, moderate, or high-risk categories, and those located within the Wildfire Urban Interface (WUI).

Properties that are identified as both high-risk and within the WUI will be subject to certain defensible space requirements around existing and new homes and additional fire-hardening requirements for new homes. Owners of such properties were recently mailed a packet of information and an appeal form from the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF). The deadline for filing an appeal is May 10, 2025.   

The original wildfire hazard maps were released in June of 2022 and met with immediate public criticism. In response, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 80 in 2023, which provided additional guidance on how the maps would be developed. This included a requirement that ODF and other involved State agencies meet with county commissioners and their staff during eight in-person meetings throughout the State in late 2023.

During these meetings, Hood River County commissioners and staff raised two primary concerns: (1) the maps failed to consider land with orchards and other perennial crops that require regular irrigation throughout the fire season, and (2) the maps contained several anomalies showing islands of property mapped with a certain designation, primarily high risk, without any obvious differences to differences to neighboring lands designated moderate or low risk.

In May 2024, revised draft maps were provided to County staff for evaluation. Most orchards were redesignated from high to moderate risk. However, approximately 350 anomalies were still identified by County staff for reconsideration. Initially, nearly all these anomalies were rejected, but the final maps appear to have accepted most of them. For instance, most orchard land is now rated moderate instead of high risk, and fewer islands of high risk exist, especially those surrounded by orchards and other irrigated perennial crops.

To view the final wildfire map or obtain more information, please visit the ODF’s webpage at oregon.gov/odf/fire/pages/wildfire-hazard.aspx.