This map of Deschutes County shows where dwellings have been built on resource lands, land zoned exclusive farm use, forest land and mixed farm-forest land. 

A total of 99.7% of the land zoned for exclusive farm use in Oregon in 1987 was still zoned for exclusive farm use in 2023. A total of 99.9% of land zoned as forest or mixed farm-forest in 1987 was zoned the same in 2023.

In one sense, that’s a testament to Oregon’s land use laws — protecting resource lands.

But look at those numbers another way. They also mean 43,000 acres have been rezoned from exclusive farm use and 10,000 acres of forest land have been rezoned. Once lands have been converted away from agriculture and forest land, it’s unlikely they will return.

Now there is a new pressure: solar power. The state’s energy siting council and local governments have authorized 306 commercial generating facilities on farmland since 1993. That will increase.

Clean energy is needed. It doesn’t always have to eliminate the use of farmland or forests. But it may chip away at the land supposedly safeguarded for farming and forestry.

Staff at the Department of Land Conservation and Development have eyed a study of Deschutes County to look at what it means as more homes are built on lands zoned for resources. That would likely create a new front in the battle over just how strong state land use laws should be.