FILE - In the Ochoco National Forest, North Point overlooks Bridge Creek Wilderness at sunrise.
Courtesy U.S. Forest Service
Warm and dry conditions have prompted officials to ban open fires, including wood stoves and charcoal briquette fires, on public lands across much of Central Oregon ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
“We are increasingly concerned that 2026 could rival the most extreme years on record for heat and dryness in the Pacific Northwest,” said Jeff Fedrizzi, U.S. Wildland Fire Service assistant chief of operations, for the Pacific Northwest.
Visitors to the Deschutes National Forest, the Ochoco National Forest, the Prineville District Bureau of Land Management and the Crooked River National Grassland can still have campfires in designated campground fire pits, but off-road driving and smoking are banned.
In previous years, campfire restrictions in the Ochoco and Deschutes national forests have gone into effect between mid-June to July. The prohibitions in the Prineville District are also about two weeks early.
The Level 1 fire restrictions that went into place May 18 are in addition to the Bureau of Land Management Prineville District’s annual river corridor restrictions that took effect May 13 along sections of the Crooked, Deschutes, John Day and White Rivers and some areas of Lake Simtustus and Lake Billy Chinook.
“Things are dry. We’ve had an unusually warm spring,” said Suzannah Burke, a representative for the district. “Conditions are more favorable earlier than they were last year. And we’ve seen more fire activity earlier than we did last year.”
Campers can still use their liquid-fueled and pressurized camp stoves across Central Oregon’s public lands, said Isabella Isaksen, a Central Oregon Fire Management Service public information officer.
The Prineville District and the Deschutes National Forest both finished prescribed burns for the spring according to representatives. Earlier this month, a prescribed burn near Pine Mountain turned into a wildfire after embers sparked outside the fire’s planned area and it burned just over 2,500 acres.
Kate Dunn, owner of Cultus Lake Resort nestled in the Deschutes National Forest, said she expects campfires to be banned completely later this season given the low snowpack. While guests are understanding, she said it does have an impact on her business.
“That’s part of the allure of … our glamping experience, is being able to sit around the campfire,” she said.
It also means resorts buy and sell less firewood.
Central Oregon Firewood owner Ryan Williams told OPB that campfire bundle sales have been down, in part because some of the resorts he supplies didn’t go through all the wood from last year – another year with campfire bans due to wildfire risk.
“It definitely affects the bottom line,” said Williams, who expects that some Central Oregon forests could completely close this summer because of high fire danger.
