Forestland Classification

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) Protection from Fire Program is the agency’s largest, most extensive program and provides wildfire protection on about 16 million acres of Oregon forestland. This land is mostly privately-owned but also includes some city, county, state and about 2.37 million acres of federal lands. Lands protected by ODF include about 3.5 million acres of Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). 

Currently, ODF has primary responsibility for providing fire protection within its fourteen forest protection districts. Three of the fourteen districts are protected by private Forest Protective Associations under agreement with ODF.

The principal source of revenue for this protection is a fee or “forest patrol assessment” from owners of forestland within protection district boundaries. In some parts of Oregon, a similar funding approach has been in place for nearly a century. Assessments originally applied only on lands being managed for timber production where private associations assessed member lands for fire protection, but were expanded to all forest lands following passage of the Compulsory Fire Patrol Act of 1913. For at least the past fifty years, lands have been assessed and classified according to whether they are primarily suited for timber production (Class 1), timber and grazing (Class 2), or grazing or other agriculture use (Class 3). The per acre forest patrol assessment rate tends to vary with each of these classes from district to district.

The ODF forestland classification system originated when conflicts between timber and grazing interests over the use of fire to develop and maintain grazing land in southwestern Oregon resulted in passage of the Forestland Classification Act by the Oregon Legislature in 1937. By the 1950’s, the system had been adopted statewide with significant regional variation in interpretation and application. 

Today, the wildfire protection environment, land uses and values at risk in Oregon are much different. Ecological, demographic, and economic factors that influence the provision of fire protection in Oregon’s forests have changed markedly and continue to do so.  

Decades of wildfire suppression and other land use changes have significantly impacted wildland fuel conditions. Dense stands of small trees susceptible to insects and disease have encroached into stands of more widely spaced and fire-resistant larger trees. Active management has declined over much of the federal forestland base in Oregon and fuel loadings continue to rise in many of these areas. Increases in wildfire frequency and severity associated with these changes have been compounded by more severe fire season weather conditions in recent years.

At the same time, Oregon’s population has increased, and demographics and settlement patterns have changed. People are moving into areas of wildland fuel, and building or buying homes within a matrix of this flammable vegetation. These Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas now cover significantly larger portions of many forest protection districts and contain thousands of high-value private dwellings. When fires occur in these types of areas, both structural fire protection and wildland perimeter fire control are necessary. As a consequence of these trends, the complexity and costs of the ODF Protection from Fire Program and the complete and coordinated fire protection system continue to escalate.

Click on map and zoom in, to view the current proposed Classification.

If you have questions about Forestland Classification, please contact your local Coos Forest Protective Association office

Coos Bay Unit 541-267-3161

Bridge Unit 541-572-2796

Gold Beach Unit 541-247-6241