What's ahead for wildfire safety in Oregon?
Wildfire Adapted Communities for Oregon
Large wildfire history: Deschutes County
For many people living in Central Oregon, this past week has been a hard one. We have been checking in with weather patterns, monitoring smoke updates, and hoping the winds calm and the air clears.
As the impacts of climate change continue to affect wind and weather patterns that can increase fire severity, it is more important than ever we prioritize and plan for the safety of our communities.
As Central Oregon continues to grow, we are seeing new development in high-risk fire areas across the region. We can prevent devastating loss tomorrow if we are wise about how we plan for our regional growth today.
Wildfire Preparedness and Resiliency
Last year, Oregon legislators passed a comprehensive bill (SB 762) to address wildfire preparedness and resiliency across the state.
Statewide agencies are working together to find ways to minimize loss of life, and property, protect firefighters, and “create a more predictable and protected future for communities and development at risk to the effects of wildfire.”
It’s a worthy goal, but its success depends on where resources are spent. The Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) is currently determining what to prioritize locally to minimize wildfire risk.
This spring, we asked you to weigh in: “What does Wildfire Safety mean to you?” And you did - Deschutes County residents had a strong showing in the public input process.
Based on research and feedback, DLCD released a draft Wildfire Adapted Communities Recommendation Report.
This draft report is in its final stages before it will be presented to the legislature and the state Wildfire Programs Advisory Council by October 1, 2022. The report will include the finalized recommendations for changes to statewide and local planning provisions to mitigate wildfire risk.
Take action
Before this draft becomes policy, there is one final chance for public comment before September 16. We want this report to be the best it can be, and accurately affect the needs of Central Oregonians for wildfire safety.
If you want to hear more details on the process behind the Draft Recommendation items, the Livestream of the August 16th DLCD Stakeholder Meeting that discusses the draft recommendations is available here.
The report presents five main recommendations.
1: Cities and counties prioritize robust and inclusive community information and engagement in planning efforts to create wildfire-adapted communities
2: Cities and counties assess and improve transportation networks for safe evacuation and firefighting response
3: Cities and counties review and amend local land use codes for new development to ensure safe evacuation and efficient access for firefighting response
4: Cities and counties review and amend comprehensive plan policies and implement land use codes to incorporate wildfire risk mitigation requirements for new development
5: DLCD provides support to cities and counties for post-disaster recovery in local communities through recovery planning services
6: DLCD provides support to cities, counties, special districts, and Tribes to increase the effectiveness of natural hazards planning through coordination of Community Wildfire Protection Plan and Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan processes and adoption of policies and actions into comprehensive plans and codes
At LandWatch, we are excited to see the draft recommendations have some great concepts. They emphasize the necessity of including all members of our community in the planning and implementation process for wildfire-adapted communities. They also underscore the importance of providing resources to communities already at high risk of wildfire.
On the other hand, some language could be stronger. Now is not the time to encourage new development in high-risk fire areas, or to allow rezoning of farm and forest lands in high-risk fire areas. We hope statewide policies can reflect this forethought and responsibility.
Join us at LandWatch and ask DLCD to incorporate the key points below in their final report to the legislature. You can submit a comment before September 16.
Key messages to share
For the future of wildfire safety for Oregon, please implement the Wildfire Adapted Communities Recommendations through an official rulemaking process and include state and local financial resources to support their implementation.
In response to Recommendation 1: Prioritize robust and inclusive community information and engagement in planning efforts to create wildfire-adapted communities
Please include and prioritize this language in the final report. We support this recommendation as written; DLCD will use Recommendation 1 to promote equity in the planning process and to fully understand the vulnerabilities, capabilities, and preferences of the entire population in a wildfire-adapted community.
In response to Recommendation 3: Review and amend local land use codes to ensure safe evacuation and efficient access for firefighting response
We support this recommendation, with the following amendments to the language:
The ability to live safely in a fire-prone area must be taken into account as we plan and build our communities; therefore, cities and counties should prohibit new development outside of the urban growth boundaries (UGBs) in high wildfire risk areas. Instead, state and local resources for transportation infrastructure should be spent on those already living in high wildfire risk areas, and on new development within the UGB.
Within the UGB, new development should not be added without redundant evacuation opportunities and safe pathways for firefighting responses, as supported by the most recent data available, without exception. As such, DLCD should direct cities to deny applications for new development if the Applicant cannot show safe access to evacuation routes and efficient access for firefighting response based on the best available data.
Further, we ask DLCD to require cities and counties to improve road connectivity, through an equity lens, for safe evacuation for both new development and within existing city infrastructure, without losing the integrity of a bikeable, walkable, and rollable community.
In response to Recommendation 4: Review and amend comprehensive plan policies and implement land use codes to incorporate wildfire risk mitigation requirements for areas of new development
We ask DLCD to add the following language from their draft to final report:
Protect the most vulnerable. Where there is acute risk of wildfire, amend plans and codes to prohibit or greatly limit the construction of facilities with concentrated, vulnerable populations (ex: assisted living facilities, clean air shelters, hospitals, prisons)
Build smart: Amend plans and codes to prohibit new development in fire-prone locations outside of the UGB, and promote clustering and dense development in the lowest wildfire risk areas, with landscape-scale firebreaks at the edges of communities, and with the use of responsible landscaping and building materials based on the best available data
We ask DLCD to add the following language to their final report: For high and extreme wildfire risk areas in the UGB, require that land use applications prove the ability to provide adequate water for firefighting services, that the development has access to other public utilities and services for wildfire mitigation and has reasonable access to resources to recover and rebuild after wildfire
Protect the land that protects us. Ask DLCD to add the following language to their final report: Prohibit rezoning of resource lands with any high or severe fire risk
Help us create a fire-wise future
In Central Oregon, wildfire is a natural ecological process that keeps our forests and grasslands healthy and resilient. Because we live in a fire-adapted landscape, we need a plan for people and wildfire to safely coexist. LandWatch has spent more than a decade advocating for careful planning in the face of wildfire, especially in our region’s most high-risk areas. Your support helps keep LandWatch working to bring a fire-wise future to light.