At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, June 23, fire season will begin in lands protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry in the Northwest Oregon Forest Protective Association (NWOFPA ), which includes areas in and near the Tillamook State Forest.
The NWOFPA region includes much of the regions of Gales Creek, Buxton, Timber, Manning, and the Tillamook State Forest, among other areas. It stretches north to the Columbia River, west to the Pacific Ocean, south to Sheridan, and east to parts of Gales Creek, the Killin Wetlands outside of Banks and to Scappoose.
When fire season begins, fire danger across region will be set to low for the region, and industrial fire precaution levels will be set to 1.
I’m Chas Hundley, the founder of the Gales Creek Journal.
I grew up in Gales Creek at the Gales Creek Country Store and then on Highway 6, and I plan to spend my entire journalism career here. I hope you will sign up for a subscription today to join my mission to bring the best journalism possible to the Gales Creek area.
The public and industrial users of local forests can stay informed of current fire restrictions by visiting the agency’s Fire Restrictions & Closures website or calling their local ODF or protective association office, in this case, Forest Grove ODF offices for most of our readers at 503-357-2191.
2025’s fire season across the state has been forecast as an aggressive and difficult wildfire season. Such forecasts are not always accurate.
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2024 was forecast to be a fairly mild fire season in comparison to previous years like the devastating 2020 Oregon wildfire season. The reverse turned out to be true. The fire season was so expensive, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek called a special legislative session of the Legislature in December to appropriate more than $200 million to pay firefighting bills. The state ended up spending more than $350 million fighting wildfires in 2024.
Sign up for text alerts
Sign up for text alerts for real time fire season information in the Forest Grove, Tillamook, and Astoria ODF districts by texting “NWOA” to 877-274-4067.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
