The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is the area where houses and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle, and where wildfire problems are most pronounced. The Upper Willamette SWCD provides education to urban landowners about fire danger awareness and how to live safely in wildland urban interface areas throughout Lane County.

Recently the Upper Willamette SWCD hosted local fire experts to educate the local public about important fire safety measures. Although these speaker events are on hold due to the COVID-19 virus and public gathering restrictions, we still want to ensure that Lane County urban dwellers have the resources and education to live sustainably and be fire safe. Please sign up for our e-news letter to receive notifications about fire related events, technical assistance, and other resources.

Helpful Resources for Lane County’s Urban Residents

• Fire Protection in the Wildland Urban Interface
• Lane County Community Wildfire Protection Plan is the Wildfire Risk Assessment, which assesses the potential loss of lives, property and essential infrastructure in the event of a wildland-urban interface fire. This assessment broadly identifies communities and areas within Lane County that are at risk.
• OSU Extension Forest Health and Management
• Natural Resources Conservation Service Healthy Forest Reserves Program
• Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program
• Oregon Department of Forestry, Helping Landowners Website

Vision for Additional Funding

• Hire a forestry technician to work with foresters and small woodlot owners in conservation planning. This technician would work closely with the NRCS and to determine best management practices for their forests & woodlots, understand current problems and provide potential solutions related to nutrient management, pest control & pesticide runoff, soil & sediment runoff, riparian plantings & buffer zones, among other sustainable forestry & agroforestry practices. The implementation of these solutions would be jointly funded through cost sharing between the district and landowners to leverage federal and NRCS funds.
  • In house, in partnership with the NRCS & ODF

• Reduce Fire Risk in the Wild-Urban-Interface – This program would be designed in partnership with the ODF to help homeowners create defensible spaces against fire around their houses. The district recognizes that the natural growth of vegetation around houses can get out of hand and the trimming or removal of big trees is daunting task for many homeowners. This program would help create plans for defensible space. We would send out staff members to evaluate the situation and draw up a plan of action and a working budget for a neighborhood or an individual homeowner. We provide lists of contractors, or we contract the work ourselves. We provide cost share for the execution of the work.
  • Partners: ODF, East Lane Forest Protection Association, watershed councils, others.

• Establish a grant program (or part of restoration program mentioned below) to fund the work of watershed councils, tribes, forest collaboratives, and other partners working to restore healthy landscapes and oak habitats and bring healthy (prescribed) fire back to the landscape (so that we can minimize the risk of catastrophic fire).
  • Partners: watershed councils, tribes, forest collaboratives, Fiends of Buford Park & Mt. Pisgah, McKenzie River Trust, The Nature Conservancy, FUSEE, Mount Pisgah Arboretum, and others.