Steve Wilent

The State of Oregon’s Wildfire Risk Explorer map was finalized in January, along with new defensible-space standards. A home-hardening building code (regulations designed to make homes more resilient to wildfire) is in draft form. …One Oregon lawmaker has proposed revising the map so risk levels apply broad areas rather than indicating the risk on individual properties. I’m sympathetic to the opposition to the map, etc., but scrapping it would be a mistake. …All tax lots in the state are assigned one of three wildfire hazard classes: Low, Moderate, or High; US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other public lands also are rated. …Despite the sharp criticism, this effort is a much-needed and well-intentioned project. …However, there’s a big problem: The owners of the other 94 percent of tax lots—roughly 1,786,000—rated at Low or Moderate hazard will not be required to take any action to create defensible-space around their homes or businesses.