Bend, OR Environmental Rules: Defensible Space (2026)

005 places the duty to reduce flammable or potentially flammable weeds, grass, vines, brush and other vegetation directly on every property owner or person in charge of property within the City of Bend, stating the purpose is to confine fire and prevent it from spreading between properties. The code sets two different standards depending on lot size. A tax lot of one-half acre (21,780 square feet) or less must remove all flammable or potentially flammable vegetation entirely, by trimming, cutting, removing it or applying an EPA-approved herbicide.

A tax lot larger than one-half acre instead must establish and maintain a 20-foot fuel break running the entire perimeter of the property, including along rights-of-way and easements, and the fuel break must also wrap around structures, power poles, vehicles, trees and other improvements that would be vulnerable to a vegetation-fed fire. The City can direct additional abatement beyond the fuel break where those measures do not adequately address a situation, and it can require a City-approved vegetation management plan as an alternative to the standard reduction and fuel-break methods.

Responsibility for flammable vegetation in an adjacent right-of-way or easement falls on the neighboring property owner, and any waste vegetation that is cut or cleared must be disposed of so it does not itself create a fire hazard or spread to other properties. This vegetation-management duty operates alongside the citywide wildfire hazard mitigation standards the Building Official enforces under the Oregon Residential Specialty Code's Section R327, since the entire city lies within an established Wildfire Hazard Zone.