A series of three meetings of a rulemaking advisory committee on updating the statewide wildfire hazard map have been scheduled. The committee's focus will be to provide input on whether irrigation for farmland and agricultural crops might be incorporated into the calculations for wildfire hazard assessments.
The first meeting is set for Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon on Zoom. Two additional meetings are scheduled for March 28th and April 18th -- also from 9 a.m. to noon. All meetings will be held virtually and are open to the public.
The Zoom meetings are at "odf.zoom.us/j/8829567607?omn=94409353162." A post-meeting recording will be posted on the ODF YouTube channel, which is "youtube.com/c/oregondepartmentofforestry."
Public outreach meetings will soon be scheduled and announced to discuss the mapping process and related wildfire programs. Outreach will occur during the months of April, May and June.
The 2021 Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 762 that required the Oregon Department of Forestry to develop and maintain a comprehensive statewide map of wildfire risk that include wildland-urban interface boundaries and five fire risk classes by June 30, 2022, in collaboration with Oregon State University.
After the initial version of the map was rescinded in August 2022, ODF and OSU began gathering feedback and incorporating it into future mapping efforts.
The 2023 Legislature passed Senate Bill 80 that made several changes to the map including changing the name from a "risk" map to a "hazard" map, reducing the number of hazard classes from five to three, and changing the appeal and notification requirements.
