Homeowners are responsible for thinning brush that could fuel wildfires under Senate Bill 360

When the Quartz fire burned more than 6,100 acres in the Little Applegate River drainage during the summer of 2001, it ignited Reeve Hennion’s concern.

Then came the Squires fire the following summer, threatening numerous homes when it torched some 2,800 acres between Ruch and the Sterling Creek drainage.

That was enough for Hennion and his wife, Lynn, whose spacious home is nestled on about 100 acres along the picturesque river.

"For most of us out here, the Squires fire and the Quartz fire brought home the importance of keeping places thinned out around your home," he said.

They are among rural residents in Jackson County that the Oregon Forestlands Urban Interface Fire Protection Act of 1997 is targeting.

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Known as Senate Bill 360, the act sets standards for reducing the threat of fires around rural homes. Under the act, rural landowners will have the option of meeting the standards, which include creating a fuel break from 50 to 100 feet from structures, depending on the property’s classification.

Those who choose not to will be responsible for paying a portion of the state’s cost of suppressing a fire that starts on their land and spreads as a result of their decision not to meet those standards. That liability could be as much as $100,000.

The bill also allows the Oregon Department of Forestry to assess an annual $25 fee per tax lot to help landowners meet the standards. The fee also will pay to run the program.

Jackson and Deschutes are test counties for the program. Beginning next week, a series of public meetings will be held to discuss the program, including the property identification and classification process, which has yet to be finalized.

Landowners will have two years to meet the improvement goals after the property classifications are adopted by the state.

Hennion, chairman of the Jackson County Land Classification Committee, became sold on thinning around a home after observing the aftermath of the Squires fire.

"We saw how the fire laid down when it came to the cleared areas," he said of a section thinned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

"For the purpose of Senate Bill 360, you just need to do some clearing around the house and around the driveway," he said. "It makes sense to do a little more, but that’s really all that is required."

A few miles south of Medford, Dark Hollow resident Mich Lewis is helping organize neighbors to develop a community stewardship project to reduce the local fire hazard. The group is working with the ODF and Jackson County Fire District No. 5.

Lewis, who has about nine acres in the area, plans on attending one of the public meetings next week.

"I’ve done everything I can every single winter to get my fuel load down but I’ve got a day job," said the music teacher. "But I believe everybody who lives in a rural area where there is a forest needs to do that work around their homes."

Most local rural landowners seem to agree, observed Dan Thorpe, ODF Medford Unit forester.

"You don’t have to make the property around your house into a moonscape," he stressed. "You just need to create a defensible space."

The goal is to remove or thin enough vegetation to slow the advance of a fire, giving firefighters a better chance to stop an advancing fire, he said.

In addition to saving structures, reducing the fire hazard also makes firefighting safer, he said.

"When a fire is on the ground, it is a lot easier to stop than when it is high in the trees," he said.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com

Public meetings set to discuss bill

Two sessions will be held at each site. The afternoon sessions will begin at 3:30 p.m. and end at 6 p.m.; the evening sessions will begin at 7 p.m. and end at 9:30 p.m.

The meeting dates and locations are: