How land use can keep Oregonians safe from wildfires
As Oregon reels from destructive wildfires and oppressive smoke, we at Central Oregon LandWatch want to express our heartbreak and sympathy for the communities experiencing unfathomable loss.
In the American West, wildfire plays an important role of keeping ecosystems healthy and resilient. More than a century of industrial logging, development pressure, and climate change have reshaped the intensity of fire and its impact to the landscape and human communities.
Land use plays a vital role in reducing the impact of fire
While land use planning won’t eliminate wildfires, it can help mitigate their destructive effects by preventing the placement of homes and businesses in the path of fire.
Oregon's land use planning laws concentrate growth within urban growth boundaries and protect rural lands for agriculture and forestry by keeping the amount of development on these lands low. These growth patterns are consistent with what fire risk experts recommend as the best approach for creating fire-adapted communities.
In a recent study, fire risk experts demonstrated the advantages of compact urban development for protecting homes against wildfire. The researchers found that isolated clusters of development on rural lands result in the highest fire risk to homes, while infill or urban development has the lowest fire risk.
An example of how the WUI works to buffer homes and businesses from wildfire.
Count on LandWatch to enforce Oregon’s land use laws
LandWatch advocates for the proper implementation of Oregon's land use laws. These laws ensure that development is concentrated within urban areas and away from farm and forest lands.
When it comes to fire, the area where urban and rural lands meet is known as the wildland-urban interface, or WUI. The WUI is the lynchpin in keeping our communities safe. By planning WUI areas to be fire breaks that slow the advance of fires, we protect urban areas where people live and work.
Learn how LandWatch advocates to keep homes out of the path of fire here.
How you can help
Travel Oregon created this list of resources to help communities in need and support those on the frontlines of the wildfires.
Join a chorus of Central Oregonians dedicated to ensuring we are a fire-adapted community by subscribing to our email list.