Protecting Coos, Curry and Western Douglas Counties since 1910
About Coos FPA
The Coos Forest Protective Association is a private, non-profit corporation in the business of providing protection from fires to its corporate members. Under an agreement with the Oregon State Forester, the Association also provides protection to other private, state, county and federal lands.
The objective of the Coos Forest Protective Association is to minimize the cost of suppression and the damage to the forest and watershed environment caused by wildfire and to respond to all fire control emergencies with an effective, well trained, equipped and supervised fire control organization sufficient to achieve optimum suppression results.
History of Coos FPA
Two men with a vision, both lumber experts, and business men, employed a way to save money for all timber owners in Coos County by creating a fire prevention association. The idea was for the local timber owners to pay a tax to the Coos County Tax Association and those taxes would go to a fund used to offset costs associated with forest fires on all private lands combined, creating a membership. This fund would lower the cost for forest fires for each timber owner as the full cost of the fire would not be suffered by the individual timber owner that had a fire, but rather by all members of the association.
Every timber / land owner suffered great losses due to forest fires. Timber owners were at the mercy of the weather, the landscape, and the lack of resources. With limited trails and roads, non to little telephonic communications, scarce manpower, combined with the enormity of the timber allowed fires to grow to enormous size and cause massive destruction. Many times having to wait for the rains to come so as to put the fire out. Armed with cost figures, a workable plan, the approval of the landowners, by-laws, a budget and Mr. Adelsperger and Mr. Conrad to manage the funds, they gathered a group of representatives and headed to Portland to have the association approved. On April 9, 1910 - Coos County Fire Patrol Association was organized and so named.
In 1948 it was decided that Coos County Fire Patrol would be renamed to Coos Forest Protective Association. Coos FPA was one of the first associations organized in the Pacific Northwest, was the second association created and is the oldest association still in operation in the State of Oregon. We encompass 1.5 million acres of forested lands in Coos, Curry, and Western Douglas Counties for the protection from fire. The size of the district is 170 miles long by 50 miles wide, for this reason the district is divided into three fire control units located in Bridge, Gold Beach, and Coos Bay each with a Forester in charge of the unit. The headquarters is located in Coos Bay.
Coos Forest Protective Association celebrated their 100th Anniversary in 2010.
Service Providers
