Southern Willamette Forest Collaborative Current and Future Projects

High Prairie neighborhood

The High Prairie neighborhood has faced repeated wildfire threats in recent years. In 2022, the Cedar Creek Fire came within two miles, with final containment lines less than half a mile away. The Salmon Fire threatened the area from the south in 2023. In 2024, the High Prairie Fire directly threatened homes, requiring three days of intensive initial attack to contain it at 10 acres. Shortly after, the Chalk Fire, started during the same lightning storm, burned just to the north, eventually reaching over 6,000 acres, and again bringing an active fire front within two miles.

Reducing flammable materials (fuels) in this area is crucial for protecting High Prairie and the wider Oakridge community. The Southern Willamette Forest Collaborative (SWFC) is planning further fuel reduction projects on private land in High Prairie. Additionally, the Dead Mountain project will create protective buffers for this neighborhood and prepare the landscape for future controlled burns, which will help maintain the effectiveness of the fuel reduction efforts.

Dunning Road and Hills Creek neighborhoods

The Dunning Road area near Oakridge faces significant wildfire risk. In 2021, the Kwis Fire came within two miles, highlighting the danger of east winds, similar to those that caused devastation in western Oregon in 2020. Then, in 2022, the Cedar Creek Fire rapidly spread down Bunchgrass Ridge towards Aubrey Mountain, directly threatening the Dunning Road neighborhood.

Recognizing this high risk, identified in a Firewise assessment, the SWFC prioritized the Dunning Road area for wildfire mitigation projects in 2022. Funded by Senate Bill 762 (SB762), in partnership with the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM), these projects focused on reducing fuel loads. To date, 150 acres between Dunning Road and Hills Creek have been treated. This involved removing invasive weeds, clearing small trees and brush, and thinning larger trees. Similar mitigation work was also conducted around the Hills Creek neighborhood. 

City of Oakridge and City of Westfir

Over the last 5 years, Oakridge has experienced several fires, including the Salmon and Cedar Creek fires. The Cedar Creek Fire was a significant wildfire that impacted Oakridge and Westfir and caused a Level 3 community wide evacuation. The fire started on August 1, 2022 in the Willamette National Forest, near Waldo Lake. On September 8, 2022 it tripled in size, driven by east winds that brought it within five miles of Oakridge.  The community was fully evacuated for three days as firefighters established containment lines. 

The Salmon Fire ignited on August 6, 2023, approximately 3 miles northeast of Oakridge. The fire burned in steep, forested terrain on Dead Mountain. Aggressive initial attack eventually stopped the fires forward growth. 

Between 2022 and 2023 SWFC treated more than 300 acres around the Oakridge-Westfir area.  In 2024, over 150 acres were treated using machines, hand crews, as well as goats and sheep. 

Firewise Work

The Southern Willamette Forest Collaborative helps coordinate the community Firewise status, in addition to having helped over 100 homes become more defensible through Oregon State Fire Marshal grant funding. The Firewise program helps local residents protect their homes from wildfires. This program teaches people how to make their properties safer by clearing out dangerous vegetation and creating defensible spaces around their houses. The program is especially helpful for people who might have trouble doing this work on their own, like seniors, veterans, and people with physical disabilities. 

SWFC provides free assessments to help homeowners understand exactly what they can do to reduce fire risks. Volunteers can log their safety improvements, which helps create a community-wide effort to prevent wildfires. By working together and teaching residents how to prepare their properties, the Firewise program helps make the entire Oakridge area more resilient and less likely to suffer serious damage during a wildfire.