Union County may start regulated fire season early dry conditions

Dry spring conditions could push Union County into regulated fire season earlier than usual, changing when residents, ranchers and rural property owners can burn yard debris, slash and other material outside city limits.

The Union County Fire Defense Board will recommend that the Union County Board of Commissioners approve an early start at the June 3, 2026, commission meeting. The board said the call is based on warmer-than-normal spring weather and fuels drying faster than expected across the county, not just in one pocket of land.

If commissioners approve the recommendation, open burning outside incorporated cities would fall under the county’s regulated-use rules sooner than the normal summer start. That matters for ranchers trying to clear fields, property owners handling spring cleanup and recreation users who may not realize that even routine fires can turn into violations when conditions are dry.

Union County’s burn rules were rewritten in Ordinance 2024-02, which gives commissioners the authority to set annual entry and exit dates for regulated fire season based on Fire Defense Board recommendations. Outside city limits, a burn permit is required for all open burning, and burning is authorized only for the calendar day listed on the permit. Residents must call 541-963-4040 on the day they intend to burn and carry a paper or digital copy of the ordinance while burning.

The county also said burn barrels, recreational fires, charcoal barbecues and fire appliances are exempt from the burn-permit requirement, but they still must follow safety restrictions. County officials are urging people to use extreme caution now, because even a short stretch of cooler or wetter weather would not erase the broader fire danger already building in the county.

Union County said nearly all areas received less than 50% of normal precipitation over a 60-day period during the drought declaration it issued, and state water officials later warned Oregon could face potentially extraordinary drought in 2026 because of historically low snowpack, one of the warmest winters in state history and multi-year precipitation deficits. That larger drought picture is part of why local fire managers are moving early.

The county’s fire-management system reaches well beyond the commission chamber. The Smoke Management Program includes the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Union County Seed Growers Association, about 6 local fire protection districts and about 45 growers. Union County also has seven rural fire protection districts with jurisdiction in their boundaries, while the Oregon Department of Forestry covers most private forest land and federal agencies handle burns on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands.

Union County opened regulated use fire season on July 1 in 2025, and in 2024 commissioners later ended the restrictions when conditions improved. The board may also impose a complete countywide burn ban outside incorporated cities if extreme fire danger develops, giving officials another tool if the county dries out further before summer.