2020 Labor Day Fires - summary impacts

The Labor Day 2020 fires burned nearly a million acres of public and private forestland, primarily in western Oregon. Compared to the average Oregon fire year, the Labor Day 2020 fires were unusual for involving more private land and burning more acres in western Oregon. This had a large economic impact on the state’s forest-related businesses, according to a study commissioned by the Oregon Forest Resources Institute that examined the economic impacts of the Labor Day fires on Oregon’s forest sector. That’s because many logging and forest products companies rely on timber harvested from private forestland, which is mostly located in western Oregon, to supply mills with saw logs.