There are about 1,100 fires annually on the 16 million acres of private and public forestland protected by the Oregon Dept. of Forestry. On average, those fires burn about 12,000 total acres. The forestlands protected by the department include about 13 million acres of private and non-federal public lands, and about 3 million acres of Bureau of Land Management lands west of the Cascades.

 

About two-thirds of Oregon's wildfires are caused by people and one-third by lightning. At one time, forest operators were responsible for the majority of human-caused fires. But that has changed. Logging technology and methods have improved, sharply reducing the number of operator-caused fires. At the same time our population has grown, with more and more Oregonians living in or near the forest and recreating there. As a result, the public now accounts for half or more of all human-caused fires. Common causes include debris burns, gas-powered equipment use, campfires, off-road vehicle use and smoking. Practicing fire safety in the woods is crucial to prevent large fires that can damage the forest, destroy homes and even take lives.

Wildfire knows no jurisdictional boundaries, and neither do firefighters. The Department of Forestry and its federal, local and private forest landowner partners coordinate closely on initial attack. The entity with the nearest resources begins fighting a fire, and when forces from the jurisdictional agency arrive, they take over.

 

Every spring, the Department of Forestry and the Office of  State Fire Marshal hold an annual conference in which wildland and structural fire teams trained side by side.  Whenever wildfire threatens a community, the two firefighting forces work together to protect both homes and forest.

 

Rural residents share in the responsibility to protect their homes from wildfire.  Through the state's Forest-Urban Interface Protection Act, the department is education homeowners to take the necessary steps to make their homes less vulnerable to fire.

 

Many of Oregon's federal forestlands are unhealthy due to insect and disease damage, overly dense tree stands and unchecked brush growth. Under the National Fire Plan, the federal resource agencies are actively treating their lands to improve forest health and lower fire danger. The Department of Forestry is administering National Fire Plan grants to assist rural communities and individual landowners to reduce the hazards posed by wildfire.

 

Key fire safety tips include:

 

Some simple steps can greatly reduce your home's vulnerability to wildfire. These include:

 

The department's average annual cost of suppressing fires is $9.5 million. Cost can be much higher in bad years. Firefighting expenditure in the record 2002 fire season was about $50 million.

 

The money for wildland fire suppression comes from assessments on local forest landowners and the State General Fund. Many forest protection districts also receive payments from federal agencies for providing wildfire protection to the 2.8 million acres of federal forestland the department protects.

 

The department taps the Oregon Forest Land Protection Fund (OFLPF) to cover emergency fire costs. The fund essentially serves as an insurance policy for local landowners in each of the fire protection districts. The Board of Forestry-appointed Emergency Fire Cost Committee administers the fund. The following sources finance the OFLPF: acreage assessments paid by forest landowners, a portion of the minimum lot assessments (also paid by forest landowners), a surcharge on forestland tax lots that have been improved (addition of structures), and a portion of the timber harvest tax.

 

Oregon is unique among all other states in having a commercial insurance policy that provides protection in the event of catastrophic fires that deplete the budget. This coverage has shielded the State General Fund, the payer of last resort, from millions of dollars in payouts in severe fire seasons, most notably 2002, 1994 and 1987.