Legal Alert

The 60-Day Appeal Clock is Ticking for Challenges to Oregon Wildfire Hazard Map Assignments

by Michael A. Nesteroff
January 30, 2025

Oregon property owners who are receiving notices from the state that their property is in a zone with high wildfire risk and in a designated wildland-urban interface have until March 7, 2025 to submit appeals. The assignments and designations, posted on the Oregon Explorer website and mailed individually on January 7, 2025, are the first under statutes adopted by the Oregon legislature to improve and modernize wildfire preparedness in the wake of the Labor Day 2020 windstorm that resulted in five simultaneous megafires (i.e. fires greater than 100,000 acres), as well as a dozen other fires up to 50,000 acres, scorching more than a million acres.

Map Content

The statutes directed the development of a searchable statewide wildfire hazard map by Oregon State University. The maps have two main components—the wildfire hazard and the wildland-urban interface.

The wildfire hazard component is based on four factors—climate, weather, topography, and vegetation. After the map developers combined those criteria with historical fire data and simulations of 10,000+ plausible fire seasons to account for a wide range of conditions, they arrived at an assigned hazard classification—low, moderate, or high—for every property in Oregon.

The wildland-urban interface designation is derived from criteria that include whether there is at least one structure present per 40 acres and whether the structure(s) are surrounded by flammable vegetation or located within a mile and a half of a large patch of flammable vegetation.

The map is intended to educate property owners about wildfire exposure, help state agencies prioritize vulnerable communities, and identify where the state defensible space standards and fire-hardening codes will apply. Because those codes have not been adopted yet, will not be retroactive, and apply only if a property is both in a high wildfire hazard zone and wildland-urban interface, fire-hardening will only be required after the effective date of the new code when a permit is sought to replace a roof or siding, building an addition, or constructing a new structure.

The maps are not supposed to be used by insurers for adjusting rates or coverage decisions, although it’s likely that insurers assess risk using their own data and criteria that may or may not mimic the state maps.

Appeals Process

Owners whose property is determined to be in a high-hazard wildfire zone and in the wildland-urban interface will receive a packet containing information about the assignment and designation and their appeal rights. Even if a property is not in both a high-hazard wildfire zone and in the wildland-urban interface, the owner may still appeal. All appeals must be submitted within 60 days of the state’s release of the map, which occurred on January 7, 2025. The grounds for an appeal would be whether the four required elements apply to the property, the designation of wildland-urban interface, and whether the Oregon Department of Forestry followed the required process. A proposed remedy is a required element of an appeal, although the Oregon Department of Forestry notes on its website that having defensible space or hardened home materials will not affect the criteria used to determine the classification; they can only be considered as mitigating the risk.

Hearings will be conducted by the Office of Administrative Hearings, which allows in-person, video conference, or telephonic hearings. Attorneys are allowed, but not required. There are no site visits of properties as part of the hearing process. If the administrative appeal is denied, a property owner may pursue further appeal to the Oregon Court of Appeals.

This map is not the last word on wildfire hazards in Oregon. Every five years the maps are to be updated, which will re-start the appeal process for affected property owners. With increased growth and the effects of climate change driving drought and decreased snowpack, it’s quite likely that future iterations of the Oregon Wildfire Hazard Map will have more areas designated as high-hazard.

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