Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Wildfire Preparedness topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County and city outline wildfire preparedness: alerts, fuel reduction and evacuation planning
Summary
Deschutes County and the City of Bend briefed elected officials on joint wildfire preparedness, including Deschutes Alerts registration, prescribed burns, fuels reduction (including a 200-foot fire break at Juniper Ridge), increased home risk assessments and interagency exercise planning for evacuation and response.
Deschutes County and City of Bend emergency-management and forestry staff told the joint meeting they are coordinating alerting, fuels reduction and evacuation planning ahead of a likely warmer, drier July, and urged residents to register for Deschutes Alerts.
Nathan Gariby, lieutenant overseeing county emergency management, Kevin Moriarty, Deschutes County forester, and Carrie Carl, City of Bend director of risk and emergency management, gave a multi-agency briefing on preparedness steps, communication and on-the-ground mitigation.
Gariby emphasized that many wildfires are human-caused and that reducing human ignitions is central to reducing community risk. "Human caused ignitions...contribute to the majority of wildfires," he said, citing statewide data.
Alerting and preparedness: staff reminded residents to register for Deschutes Alerts (the county's Everbridge-based alert system). County staff said about 61,000 alert profiles exist countywide and 26,000 in the City of Bend; the city set a goal to increase registrations by 10% over the biennium.
Prescribed burns and fuels treatment: staff reported prescribed-fire operations are under way in several Central Oregon locations and described treatments planned for Juniper Ridge: a 200-foot perimeter fire break on city land and a county-treated 50-acre fuels reduction area. Staff said chipping crews and contractors were active and that chip removal phases had target dates in early May for some work.
Home risk assessments and community programs: Bend Fire & Rescue and volunteers have stepped up a program of wildfire risk assessments; staff reported 350 assessments between January and April 2025 in the city compared with 115 for all of 2024. Project Wildfire and Firewise USA materials, disposal programs (FireFree in May) and community firewise teams were described as outreach tools.
Evacuation planning and exercises: staff outlined continued work on coordinated evacuation planning countywide (modeling pinch points and roles for jurisdictions) and cited recent interagency exercises the jurisdictions used to test response for large-scale incidents.
Funding and policy context: staff noted state-level wildfire funding proposals were under discussion; one speaker urged advocacy for a robust state wildfire funding package to support mitigation and post-disaster grants. County staff said the county's natural hazard mitigation plan will be updated by October 2026 to remain eligible for mitigation dollars.
Ending: officials urged residents to register for local alerts, complete defensible-space work around homes, and treat refuse and yard debris through FireFree events in May. They said July is the month when models show increased potential for significant wildfires if conditions trend hotter and drier.
