How to choose and vet a wildfire mitigation contractor

Written November 2026. This is practical hiring help, not legal, insurance, or consumer-protection advice. Confirm licenses, insurance, bonding, and permits on the state boards and with the contractor. This directory is not an endorsement of any company.

Defensible-space and home-hardening work ranges from raking the first five feet to replacing a roof. The right contractor, and sometimes the right license, depends on the job. The steps below are for Oregon and Washington homeowners who want to hire carefully — including how to use this directory’s badges, and how to double-check them yourself.

1. Write down the job before you call

Separate the work on paper:

• Near-home clearing (Zone 0 / the first five feet) — mulch, plants, fences that touch the house, items under decks.
• Wider defensible space — thinning, limbing, ladder-fuel removal, slash disposal out to 30 or 100 feet, or farther on slopes.
• Structural home hardening — roof, vents, gutters, eaves, siding, windows, decks.
• Assessment only — a written report and recommendations, without doing the work.

A company that is well suited to fuels reduction is not automatically the right company to rebuild a deck. Our home-hardening checklist and the Oregon and Washington guides can help you describe the scope in the same language agencies use. If a grant or cost-share program might pay part of the bill, read that guide first: some programs require an assessment or approval before work starts.

2. Confirm the license yourself

In Oregon, look up construction contractors at the Oregon Construction Contractors Board (CCB) search. Structural work — roofs, vents, siding, decks, and similar building changes — is CCB territory. Oregon also has a Landscape Contractors Board (LCB). Vegetation, landscaping, and some tree work can fall under LCB rules, CCB rules, or both, depending on the task. This directory checks CCB records, which we can verify consistently for the construction businesses we list. For a vegetation-only job, ask whether an LCB license applies and confirm it on the LCB site. We are not a licensing agency, and the boundary between the two boards is a question for the boards, not for a directory.

In Washington, use L&I Verify to look up contractor registration. The Washington Department of Labor & Industries also publishes a consumer pamphlet, What You Should Know About Hiring a Contractor. Some kinds of yard work may have different registration rules than construction; confirm with L&I for the work you are buying.

When you look a company up, match more than the number:

• Is the legal business name the same as the name on the bid, the truck, and the website?
• Is the status Active (or the equivalent current wording on the board)?
• Do bond and insurance records, when the board shows them, appear current and match that same business?
• Are there notes you should ask about, such as a past administrative suspension or, on Oregon CCB, a complaint flag? A complaint is not the same as a finding of wrongdoing.

Ask the company to put its license or registration number on the written bid. Then look it up yourself. Do not rely only on a number printed on a website or on a listing, including ours.

3. What this directory’s badges mean

Every listing on this site shows a license-status badge and a check date. We last checked Oregon CCB and Washington L&I records on November 6, 2026. The full method is on our how we verify page. In brief:

• License verified — we found an Active board record for the named business (or a clear same-business name variant). Browse and search default to this status.
• Board status: Expired — a record exists but was expired or not renewed on the check date.
• Board status: Suspended — the record was suspended (for example, L&I showed that it did not meet current requirements).
• Published number listed to another business — a number on the company’s website belonged to a differently named business, and our name searches found no record for the listing.
• Related board record (not a full match) — we found a probable parent company, DBA-style hit, or related legal name, but not a clean same-name Active match.
• No board record found — we searched the names in our notes and did not find a board record. The listing still comes from the company’s public website.

A “Show all listings, including unverified” control on browse and search pages reveals the labeled listings that are not in the verified default. A verified badge is not a recommendation, a quality rating, or a substitute for your own board lookup. We do not give star scores, “best of” lists, or guaranteed insurance outcomes. We do not call a company “IBHS certified”: IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home is a homeowner property program, not a contractor license. NFPA’s Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist (CWMS) credential belongs to a named person; we only mention it after we have verified that person with NFPA.

4. Insurance, bonding, and written quotes

Ask for proof of insurance and bonding that matches the legal name on the license. For structural work, ask whether the company’s coverage fits the job (for example, work on a roof or a second-story deck). For vegetation work, ask who is responsible if a tree is dropped onto a structure or a power line.

Get a written scope and price. It should say what will be cut, removed, or installed; what will be left; how slash will be chipped, hauled, or — only where legal — burned; and what is excluded (for example, work on a neighbor’s side of a fence, or a roof that was only inspected). For a large project, get more than one bid, with comparable scopes so the prices mean something.

Structural changes often need a licensed contractor and may need a permit. Vegetation work near streams, steep slopes, or protected trees may have separate local rules. Your building department and fire district can tell you what they expect. This site cannot.

5. Questions worth asking

• Have you done Zone 0 or home-hardening work of this kind on homes like mine (slope, forest type, roof type)? Can you share addresses of recent jobs I may look at from the street, or references I may call?
• Who will be on site, and are they employees or subcontractors? If subcontractors, are they also licensed and insured?
• How will you protect irrigation, septic, wells, and remaining trees?
• How will slash and chips be handled, and which local burn or dump rules will you follow?
• If the bid includes vents, a roof, or a deck, will you pull required permits, and which products (for example, 1/8-inch corrosion-resistant mesh or a listed ember-resistant vent) will you install?
• Does anyone on the crew hold a personal credential such as NFPA CWMS? If they say so, ask for the person’s name and verify it. If they say the company is “IBHS certified,” that wording does not match how IBHS’s home program works.
• What does cleanup include, and when is final payment due?

6. Keep records, and do not expect a promised discount

Take dated before-and-after photos and keep invoices. If you talk with an insurer about mitigation, you will want that file. Oregon’s Senate Bill 82 (2023) requires insurers to disclose how wildfire-risk-reduction efforts may influence rating and availability of insurance; that is a disclosure requirement, not a guarantee of a lower premium. Nobody — including a contractor or this directory — can honestly promise an insurance outcome.

To browse companies whose licenses we could verify, use search (it defaults to “License verified”), or start from Oregon or Washington. If a listing is wrong, or you want to add a company, use the submit / correct page.

Sources

• Oregon Construction Contractors Board, contractor search.
• Oregon Landscape Contractors Board, license requirements.
• Washington Labor & Industries, Verify a contractor and What You Should Know About Hiring a Contractor.
• This site, How we verify listings (November 6, 2026 board pass).
• IBHS, Wildfire Prepared Home (homeowner property program).
• Governor of Oregon, Wildfire Programs Advisory Council (summary of Senate Bill 82, 2023).