Why lawmakers are seeking to kill Oregon wildfire risk map for second time

Yahoo

17-02-2025

For the second time in two years, Oregon lawmakers want to kill a map meant to identify areas at high risk of catastrophic wildfires but that has become a lightning rod for anger from rural residents who say it places an unfair burden on them.
Oregon Republicans held a press conference Monday laying out plans to repeal the risk map, which was released earlier this year, and the stricter building codes and requirements it places on about 100,000 properties in the name of wildfire prevention.
Republicans touted different pieces of legislation — such as Senate Bill 678 — that would eliminate the map.
If they're successful, it would mark the second time the wildfire risk map has been killed. The original version of the map, released in summer 2022, was also recalled after outcry.
'This map is riddled with inaccuracies and fails to reflect real world conditions,' said House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby. 'Property owners are understandably scared and confused. They're worried about their lives, their worried about their futures. This map is destroying property values that they have worked to maintain. They fear fines if they can't comply with the regulations tied to these maps. They fear this map is being weaponized to push them out of rural Oregon.'
It's not just Republicans taking aim at the map. Gov. Tina Kotek on Monday announced a pause on some of the requirements of the map until the legislative session concludes. Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, also supported repealing the wildfire map 'that has so many people scared and confused.'
After the historically destructive 2020 Labor Day wildfires, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 762 to 'help Oregon modernize and improve wildfire preparedness.'
Some of the bill remains broadly supported, such as funding a program to place remote cameras on mountaintops to spot and extinguish wildfires early.
But another big part of the bill, creation of a wildfire risk map, has been extremely controversial. Under the map, residents that lived in areas of high wildfire risk — and within the wildland-urban interface — would become subject to rules that require creating defensible space or using fire-resistant building materials.
The new rules were set to impact about 6% of all of Oregon's tax lots — or 106,000 properties.
As the owners of those tax lots have been informed of the new rules, it's led to a major pushback.
Residents have reported their home prices declining and insurance costs skyrocketing.
While there is a law against insurance companies using the map to set rates, whether coincidence or not, many have said their costs have doubled or tripled, or that they can't purchase any insurance at all.
Oregon Republicans said the rules meant the burden of wildfire mitigation was falling on families with fixed incomes unable to make the required changes and struggling to fill out forms that would allow an exemption.
Further, because the map was created by Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Forestry in a 'landscape style way,' it led to flooded farm fields, for example, being labeled as high risk.
'To all those scared they cannot afford wildfire hardening, scared they cannot afford (this policy) or that the civil liability could make them go bankrupt, we hear you. We stand collectively to be your voice. Please help us as we repeal the fire maps,' said Sen. Noah Robinson, R-Cave Junction.
Robinson introduced a bill (SB 678) that would fully repeal SB 762, but he and others left the door open to only repealing the hazard map.
Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, said he would be 'convening a group of legislators to craft a wildfire package of both budget and policy recommendations that keeps the health and safety of Oregonians front and center,' he said in a statement.
But Republicans said they wanted to repeal the map far sooner, and not have it tied to a complex legislation.
'We don't need delay, we need repeal,' Drazen said, ideally by early March.
The map's hazard ratings are based on weather, climate, topography and vegetation on a broad environmental scale.
'The wildfire hazard map is informed by decades of research on the nature of wildfire, where it begins, why it exists, and what the challenges are,' Oregon State University College of Forestry wildfire scientist Andy McEvoy said previously. 'The wildfire hazard map is intended to provide property owners and policymakers with an objective foundation for making decisions.'
The map can't zero down to the details of an individual property. However, 'if a property owner has implemented appropriate defensible space already, there is likely nothing that a designation of high hazard and being within the wildland-urban interface will require of them when future code requirements are adopted,' a news release announcing the wildfire maps said.
The map designates every part of Oregon as low, moderate or high risk of wildfires.
The highest concentration of high risk wildfire zones are located in Oregon's southwest, central and eastern areas, according to the map.
The size and number of wildfires burning across Oregon each summer has grown steadily, particularly since around 2012 and especially since 2017.
Last year, Oregon set a record for acres burned at just under 2 million acres, mostly in the grasslands of eastern Oregon. The 2020 Labor Day Fires blowup was the most destructive in state history in terms of property damage.
But even the average years are now striking, as the state has burned 640,000 acres per season for the past 10 years, compared to an average of 198,000 acres per year from 1992 to 2001, according to the Northwest Coordination Center.
"This state has to reckon with its new reality," Kyle Williams, ODF deputy director of fire operations, told lawmakers earlier this year.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at [e-mail] or [phone]. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at oregonoutdoors.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon wildfires: Lawmakers seek to kill risk map for second time