October 23, 2021 2:50 p.m. 

Fire season has now ended on all 16 million acres of Oregon forestland protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry.

An ODF release said the last three districts – Klamath-Lake, Northeast Oregon and the Walker Range Forest Patrol Association – ended their fire seasons Friday morning.

The 2021 wildfire seasons in ODF’s districts and forest protective associations lasted an average of 131 days, tying it with 2018 for the fifth longest fire season since 2000.      The longest fire season was 147 days back in 2002. The shortest was 99 days in 2019.

The release said individual districts had shorter or longer fire seasons depending on local fire conditions.

The longest wildfire season this year was ODF’s Southwest Oregon District, which was the first district to declare fire season back on May 12th. That district, which protects Jackson and Josephine counties, was in fire season for 161 days, their third longest since 2000.

The shortest fire season this year was the North Cascade District, which protects Clackamas, east Multnomah, eastern Marion, and northern Linn counties. It lasted 98 days from June 25th to October 1st. That was about 12 days shorter than last year.

The release said statewide more than 800,000 acres burned in wildfires this year – fewer than 2020 but above the 10-year average. A single fire, the 413,717-acre Boot Fire, accounted for about half the acres that wildfires have burned this year. The fire was the third largest that Oregon has experienced since 1900.