PORTLAND, Ore. — Homeowners in specific regions of Oregon that are considered at elevated risk for wildfires will now be subject to enhanced building regulations and requirements aimed at reducing the vegetation on their properties, following the introduction of new “wildfire hazard maps” released on Tuesday.
These maps come in response to an unprecedented wildfire season last year and devastating fire incidents in 2020, which resulted in the loss of nine lives and the destruction of thousands of homes.
Developed by the state, these maps will not impact homeowners’ insurance rates, in accordance with Oregon law. They establish new guidelines for those residing in areas that are most susceptible to wildfires, particularly those adjacent to wildlands like forests or grasslands. Approximately 6% of Oregon’s nearly 1.9 million tax lots will be influenced by these new rules, a decreased figure from an earlier draft initiated in 2022, which was retracted due to homeowner apprehensions regarding potential increases in insurance costs.
With climate change causing wildfire seasons to lengthen and intensify, Oregon is not alone in confronting these challenges. States like Washington and Colorado are also taking measures to address fire risk in their communities. Recently, California implemented a regulation mandating insurance companies to provide coverage in high-risk wildfire zones to maintain their licenses in the state.
In Oregon, the newly introduced building and defensible space regulations will affect around 106,000 tax lots. The updated construction codes will enforce fire-resistant features for new buildings in high-hazard zones within the wildland-urban interface. Existing homes will only be subjected to these regulations if significant renovations are made, such as replacing a roof or siding entirely, as stated by Mark Peterson, a representative from the state’s Building Codes Division.
Experts emphasize that these maps are a critical resource for identifying and safeguarding areas most vulnerable to fires as the state continues to face record-breaking wildfire seasons. Since 2020, even regions along the Oregon coast—which were previously regarded as low-risk due to their wetter climate—have experienced destructive fires.
“After 2020, we can no longer view this as solely a problem affecting southwest and central Oregon,” remarked Andy McEvoy, a faculty research assistant at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry. He played a role in developing the maps and urged a comprehensive statewide approach to combatting wildfire risks.
The catastrophic fires that plagued Oregon during the Labor Day weekend in 2020 stand among the most severe natural disasters in the state’s history, leading to the loss of nine lives, the burning of over 1,875 square miles (4,860 square kilometers), and the destruction of thousands of homes and structures.
The subsequent 2024 wildfire season also reached unprecedented levels, costing Oregon over $350 million—marking it the most expensive wildfire season on record—and resulting in the burning of nearly 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers), particularly affecting the range and grazing lands in rural regions.
McEvoy indicated that the new maps will assist officials in directing resources to the communities that require them most. By reducing vegetation surrounding homes to create defensible spaces and including fire-resistant materials such as metal roofs and fiber cement siding, properties can become more resilient to fire threats.
“If we manage our vegetation properly and construct our buildings using specific materials, we can enhance the chances of those structures enduring a fire,” McEvoy explained. “However, we cannot change the likelihood of a fire breaking out in the first place.”
The two newly released maps detail wildfire hazard levels and the wildland-urban interface, and were created by scientists from Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Forestry. It is important to note that a 2023 state law prohibits insurers from utilizing state-produced wildfire hazard maps to cancel or decline renewal of homeowner insurance policies, or to increase premiums. Nonetheless, McEvoy acknowledged that many insurers have long been formulating their own wildfire risk assessments.
“There is very little information in this map that hasn’t already been included or referenced in other materials produced by researchers or the insurance sector,” he added.
Oregon state officials and researchers revised the initial wildfire hazard maps after gathering thousands of public comments and conducting public forums throughout the state. Modifications included lowering the hazard classification for irrigated farmland and hay/pasture lands, which often undergo irrigation during haying and are actively grazed, thereby reducing the vegetation that could fuel fires.
States such as California, Arizona, and New Mexico have had wildfire hazard maps in use for many years. In the previous year, Washington state legislators mandated the creation of a statewide wildfire risk map, and in 2023, Colorado enacted legislation to form a wildfire resiliency code board.
The adoption process for the new defensible space regulations, supervised by the Office of the State Fire Marshal, as well as the building codes managed by the Building Codes Division, is not slated to begin until the appeals period regarding the wildfire hazard maps concludes. The Oregon Department of Forestry will inform affected landowners of their tax lot status.
