By Steve Wilent
The Mountain Times
A bit more than two years ago I wrote about the State of Oregon’s wildfire risk map and draft regulations, which would have required many property owners to take steps to reduce the risk to their homes and businesses, possibly including penalties for not complying. For a variety of reasons, many property owners were upset with the map and rules. Some disagreed with the risk level assigned to their property. Others were concerned about the potential costs of complying with the regulations and the assessment of penalties for failing to comply. These and other criticisms spurred the state to withdraw the map and revise it.
A draft of the revised map was made public on July 18. You can view it online via the interactive Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer at tinyurl.com/3ye4penv. The agencies and partners involved in revising the map accepted public input until August 18. When the map and associated regulations are finalized, I’ll let you know.
The new map includes one important change: The 2022 map showed 5 risk levels, from No Risk to Extreme Risk. The revised map includes three hazard classes: Low, Moderate, and High. (Note that the title at the top of the Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer map still uses the word “risk”— to avoid confusion, in my opinion, the state ought to change it to the Oregon Wildfire Hazard Explorer.)
Wildfire hazard is defined as the combination of how likely a wildfire is to occur in a specific location (burn probability) and how much heat energy the fire gives off (fire intensity).
What hasn’t changed? For most properties in our area, the hazard rating is essentially the same as on the 2022 map: If your property was Moderate or High risk on the old map, it is likely to be Moderate or High hazard on the new map. And, as in 2022, the defensible-space regulations will not apply to properties deemed to be at Low or Moderate hazard.
As you can see in the images of the map that accompanies this article, most of the Highway 26 corridor is deemed to be Moderate or High Hazard. Most, but not all, residential and business properties in our area are classified as Moderate Hazard (blue on the map). Timberline Rim, for example, is shown as Moderate. Some, however, are rated as High Hazard, such as most of the properties south and east of the Mt. Hood Oregon Resort’s golf course, along Welches Road and Salmon River Road. Much of Rhododendron and all of Government Camp are High Hazard. The new defensible-space regulations will apply to these properties.
Downtown Sandy is Low Hazard and is surrounded by areas of Moderate Hazard.
Most of the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands around us, which were listed as High or Extreme risk on the 2022 map, are now in the High Hazard category.
To find the hazard rating for your property, go to the Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer and type in your street address. When I did so, the map zoomed to my property and showed that its Draft Wildfire Hazard Class is Moderate and that it is within a draft Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) boundary zone. The WUI is defined as “the geographic area where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with forests, rangelands and other vegetation. This area is the transition zone between wildlands and human communities.”
Because my property is at Moderate Hazard, I will not be subject to the defensible space regulations (codes) now being developed. Here’s how the state explains it (see beav.es/hazardmap):
The purpose of the map is to identify zones where structures are exposed to comparatively high hazard (relative to properties across the rest of the State) and, therefore, would benefit the most from investments in and maintenance of defensible space. Only properties that are both in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and classified as high hazard will be subject to defensible space codes. If a property satisfies both those criteria and also has adequate pre-existing defensible space conditions, those conditions would be accounted for during the assessment and implementation of the defensible space code by the Oregon State Fire Marshal.
This means that most property owners in the Highway 26 corridor will not be subject to the forthcoming defensible space regulations. The owners of High Hazard properties may eventually be required to create a defensible space around their homes or businesses, or improve the existing defensible space.
Regardless of your property’s hazard rating, you don’t need to wait for the revised defensible-space regulations. Homes with defensible space around them stand a much greater chance of surviving a wildfire. Remember that properties at Moderate and even Low Hazard can be burned by wildfires. Many of the 18,000 structures that burned during the 2018 Camp Fire in California would likely have been rated as Moderate or Low Hazard — they were in suburban-style neighborhoods, not in WUI zones.
Hoodland Fire District’s website has a wealth of information on creating a defensible space. Go to hoodlandfire.us, click on Prevention, and then on Defensible Space.
You may have heard a saying that goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The next best time is now.” The same principle applies to preparing for wildfire: The best time to create a defensible space around your home was last year. The next best time is now.
Have a question about wildfire hazard or defensible space? Know a place on Earth that isn’t at some risk of a natural or human-caused disaster? Let me know. Email: SWilent@gmail.com.