Text Size:   A+ A- A   •   Text Only
Find     
Oregon Department of Forestry

Fire Protection, Southwest Oregon District

 

 

Fuel Reduction Assistance
Fuel reduction assistance grants

ODF's fuel-reduction assistance grants are available. In most cases, a grant is for creating a 100-foot fuel break around a home and along the driveway. But assistance may also be available for treatment along property lines, roadsides and other parts of larger properties.
The first step is to call and make an appointment for a site visit:
  • In Jackson County, call ODF's Medford Unit at (541) 664-3328 and ask for Herb Johnson or Derick Price.
  • In Josephine County, call ODF's Grants Pass Unit's grant assessment message phone at (541) 471-4248.

 

 

Fire Protection
Fire prevention sign reading that the current fire danger level is low
Public use fire danger level is LOW

Fire Season Information
Fire season has ended, effective Tuesday, October 16, on lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Southwest Oregon District. 

ODF's Southwest Oregon District protects 1.8 million acres of state, private, county, city and Bureau of Land Management forestlands in Jackson and Josephine counties.

 

 

 

 

To report a fire or other emergency, call 911. When you call 911, be prepared to tell the dispatcher who you are, where the fire is located, and how to contact you. Do not hang up until the dispatcher asks you to. For more information about emergency reporting, see the Jackson County Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon website.

To ensure you'll know about an emergency in your neighborhood, sign up for Citizen Alert. This notification system helps local officials to provide you with critical information quickly in a variety of situations, including fire, flood, evacuations and other emergencies.

See the Southwest Oregon District's blog about fire protection, and sign up with Twitter to receive bite-size tweets about local wildfire activity. 
 
For regulations on national forest lands in Jackson and Josephine counties, contact the Rogue River Siskiyou National Forest. For further information about fire restrictions in all parts of the Wild and Scenic Section of the Rogue River, contact the Smullin Visitor Center located at the Rand National Historic Site at (541) 479-3735 or your local Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest office.  
 
For regulations on ODF-protected lands in Klamath and Lake counties, see the Klamath Falls Interagency Fire Center's website or call ODF's Klamath-Lake District office. 
 
For regulations on private lands in Douglas County, contact the Douglas Forest Protective Association (private, state, county and BLM lands) or the Umpqua National Forest (national forest lands). 
 
For more information about fire season regulations on private, state, county or BLM lands in Jackson and Josephine counties, contact the ODF Southwest Oregon District unit office in your area:

  • Medford Unit, 5286 Table Rock Rd., Central Point. Phone: (541) 664-3328
  • Grants Pass Unit, 5375 Monument Drive, Grants Pass. Phone: (541) 474-3152

For information about large wildfires elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest, visit the Northwest Interagency Fire Center website. Click on the link for Large Fire Information Summary.

For information about large wildfires anywhere in the United States, visit InciWeb. Use the drop-down menus in the upper right corner of the page to search for a specific fire by name, or by state. Or, for a quick overview of large-fire activity in the nation, see the National Interagency Fire Center's National Fire News summary page.

Additional fire prevention information
Rogue Valley Fire Prevention Cooperative 
 
Ashland Firewise

About regulated use restrictions
 
Industrial closures and public regulated use proclamations 
 
IFPL guidelines
 
Closure zone map (pdf) (Note: ODF Southwest Oregon District regulated use areas are SW-1, SW-2, SW-3, SW-4, SK-3, RR-1, RR-2, and RR-3)
 
Fire weather forecast (Southwest Oregon, NWS)
 
Southwest Oregon District weathercam page 
 
ODF Significant Fire Potential Map 
 
SWO District fire statistics (year-to-date, history of fire season start/end dates)
 
ODF fire statistics (statewide)
 
Smoke management information (ODF, statewide)
 
Prescribed Burning

 

Defensible Space
Protect Your Home Against Wildfires
Defensible space is the result of doing fuel reduction around a home. When fuels are reduced, a wildfire’s intensity is also reduced, making it safer for firefighters to work between the flames and your home.
 
Fuel is anything that can burn — needles, leaves, dry grass, firewood, cedar shake roof­ing, wood siding, wooden decking. Fuel reduction means to lessen the amount of fuel available to a fire, to increase the distance between fuels and to isolate fuels so fire can’t get to them.
 
Reducing potentially flammable vegetation (fuel) around your home will help firefighters to defend your home against damage or destruction by a wildfire. In most cases, this means to remove dead vegetation within at least 50 of your home and other structures; mow tall, dry grass and weeds; and to thin thickets of brush and small trees. In general, it is recommended to retain large, healthy trees in your defensible space area since these trees help to shield your home against radiant heat and airborne hot embers and ash.
 
There are legal requirements for defensible space and you may be required to meet one or more of these standards depending on where your property is located.
 
The Oregon Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act (SB 360) affects 13,000 lots in Jackson County and 19,000 lots in Josephine County. See the Oregon Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act web page for information about the Act’s fuel reduction requirements.
 
To look up whether a property is located in a forestland-urban interface area, use the SB 360 Searchable Database.
 
Jackson and Josephine counties have fuel reduction and construction standards for buildings being built, or rebuilt, in wildfire hazard zones. See the web pages for Jackson or Josephine counties.
 
Some southwest Oregon cities have defensible space and construction standards, and programs to assist landowners with making homes less vulnerable to wildfire damage. For example, see the Ashland Fire & Rescue Wildfire Preparation web page.
 
Check with your city’s planning department to found out whether there are specific requirements for new homes being constructed within the city boundary.
 
Some insurance companies also require defensible space around homes. Check with your insurance carrier for specific information.
 
A wealth of information about home fire prevention and family emergency planning is posted on the Rogue Valley Fire Prevention Cooperative’s web page. And the following web sites also have useful information for preparing your home and family for wildfires and other emergencies:
 
-- Firewise
-- American Red Cross “Wildfire: Are you prepared”
-- Jackson County Emergency Management
-- Josephine County Emergency Management