Jefferson County is revising its five-year Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), a process that takes on added urgency after a 2026 fire season that interim Fire Chief Kasey Skaar described as unusually intense.
The update covers 1.15 million acres across the county and will include a review of fuel reduction progress, updated wildfire risk mapping, and identification of areas where mitigation work needs to continue or begin. Rural fire protection agencies, the Oregon Department of Forestry, and the county fire department are all participating in the revision.
"We've had a lot of large fires in our landscape since this last edition. So I think we have a lot of historical data to kind of go over." — Interim Fire Chief Kasey Skaar
A Season Defined by Lightning
The 2026 fire season stood out for the sheer volume of lightning-caused ignitions rather than human-caused fires. By July, the number of starts and resulting acreage had reached historically notable levels across the region.
Among the fires this summer was one at Round Butte that burned roughly 1,160 acres — an area the 2022 CWPP had already flagged as carrying extreme wildfire risk. Other high-concern areas identified in that plan include Juniper Crest and Ashwood-Antelope, with communities like High Chaparral, Gateway, and Shamrock Estates rated at high risk.
"July hit, and then it became kind of historical because of the amount of fire starts and the acres that began to burn." — Kasey Skaar
Focus on Larger Projects and Maintenance
Skaar said one of the key goals for the updated plan is figuring out how to fund and execute larger-scale mitigation projects — and how to maintain work that has already been done.
"I think we need to look and identify in these areas: how do we get more work done? Then maybe we can stop the fires at a smaller acreage." — Kasey Skaar
The county currently operates a household wildfire mitigation program through the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council (COIC), which has provided participating homeowners with nearly $600 toward fire-hardening improvements. Skaar said scaling that effort to larger, landscape-level projects will depend on securing grant funding.
Ecological and Federal Land Scope
The plan also addresses ecological health on federal lands within Jefferson County. Fuel reduction projects on those lands can reduce wildfire risk for adjacent communities while improving forest and rangeland health.
The CWPP revision is ongoing. Residents interested in the process or in the county's household mitigation program can contact Jefferson County Emergency Management or visit the COIC website for more information.