Oregon agencies outline coordinated push on wildfire mitigation and home‑hardening programs

State forestry and fire officials told the Senate Interim Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire on Jan. 14 that Oregon must move beyond suppression and scale up coordinated mitigation across landscapes and communities.

Deputy Director Kyle Williams of the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) said recent decades show wildfire footprints shifting toward more populated areas, making suppression alone insufficient and requiring a “multi‑tooled solution set” tailored by region. Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Rees Temple told the committee the state is focusing mitigation on two complementary pillars: landscape resiliency and fire‑adapted communities, aligning with the National Cohesive Strategy and work from Senate Bill 762.

ODF Forest Resources Division Chief Josh Bernard described the department’s 20‑year landscape resiliency strategy, developed under SB 762, which targets roughly 13,000,000 high‑risk acres for cross‑boundary restoration, thinning, prescribed burning, invasive species removal and post‑fire restoration. Bernard said the strategy uses a shared stewardship approach to align federal, state, local and private investments and highlighted federal programs such as Good Neighbor Authority and the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership as essential partners.

Mariana Rees Temple and Claire McGrew, OSFM Chief Deputy for Community Risk Reduction, reviewed recent investments from House Bill 3940 and the department’s work to stand up a wildfire‑prepared structure program that includes home retrofits, county block grants and a defensible‑space code. McGrew described a May 2025 public‑private partnership with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) to bring wildfire science into state programs and to inform codes, grants and neighborhood‑level preparedness. McGrew said a live‑burn demonstration illustrated how home hardening and a 0–5 foot non‑combustible zone around a home reduce ignition risk.

Committee members pressed agencies on allocation and implementation. Chair Golden said he understood the biennial mitigation package to be roughly $40 million; OSFM staff replied the agency’s appropriation is “about $42,000,000” and that the agencies were working with the Legislative Fiscal Office and Department of Consumer and Business Services on limitations and spending plans. Agencies reported holding seven listening sessions and seven focus groups to inform grant design and expect to produce a report to guide allocation decisions in coming months.

Officials emphasized pilots and data collection: OSFM said the defensible space rules are proceeding through a Rules Advisory Committee and will go to the Oregon Fire Code Advisory Board in February, and both agencies proposed piloting integrated landscape‑and‑community demonstrations to measure whether coordinated investments reduce risk on the ground.

Next steps: agencies will return with recommendations on program design and pilot proposals, and the committee asked for further briefings that explain defensible‑space choices (the emphasis on a 0–5 foot non‑vegetative zone), the structure of the wildfire‑prepared home program, and how mitigation investments will be presented to Ways and Means.