Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Yes, bigleaf maple is rated fire resistant, with six extension, fire-agency and land-management assessments pointing the same way.
A joint guide from Oregon State, Washington State and University of Idaho extension services lists it as fire resistant. Washington State’s Department of Natural Resources and Anaheim Fire & Rescue also include it on their fire-resistant or acceptable plant lists, while FireSmart BC approves it as a fire-resistant plant. Oregon State’s extension service separately includes it in both its educational gallery and its Oregon recommendations.
This is consistent but limited primary evidence. These sources use expert-curated or compiled lists with binary recommendations, so their agreement supports choosing bigleaf maple for a fire-resistant landscape. It does not establish that the tree is fireproof.
Bigleaf maple is a roughly 60-foot tree in the Sapindaceae family, native to the Southwestern and Northwestern United States. It needs moderate water and is suited to USDA zones 5a through 8b. Oregon State lists it among deciduous trees for Southern and Western Oregon, with the condition that most listed plants need some irrigation during Oregon’s dry summers and must be maintained in healthy condition. The practical conclusion is a qualified yes: several independent institutions recommend bigleaf maple, provided the tree receives the care attached to the Oregon guidance.
Form
tree
Mature height
~60 ft
Water need
moderate
Rated in
British Columbia; OR/WA/ID; Oregon; Pacific Northwest (Oregon / Washington / Idaho) +2
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
Fire ecology context
3 cited FEIS topics across 3 dimensions; context only, never a rating vote.
The October 2023 joint Pacific Northwest Extension publication explicitly names Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and publishes more than 150 plant profiles. FireApproved has normalized 155 exact plant records from the source; publication scope does not assert that every listed plant suits every site within the three states.
Eastern Washington (WA footprint); partial normalized coverage
Washington DNR publishes the guide for Eastern Washington and says it compiles plants from other Firewise documents that are likely to thrive there. FireApproved publishes 46 exact owners only as eastern Washington context. The rows are corroborative, not empirical or statewide.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in CA, ID, OR, WA.
Native range
Current cited native range in CA, OR, WA.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
2 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
The Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System synthesizes how this exact taxon responds
to wildland fire and occurs in fire-shaped ecosystems. This literature context does not rate a
maintained landscape plant, does not change the computed classification above, and is not a
substitute for building-adjacent placement guidance.
USDA Forest Service FEIS · review ACEMAC
Acer macrophyllum, bigleaf maple
Immediate fire effect. Thin bark leaves most size classes vulnerable to top-kill, although some large mature trees can survive moderate-severity fire. (Immediate Fire Effects)
Postfire response. Root-crown buds support sprouting after top-kill, and FEIS reports postfire establishment in Washington, Oregon, and northern California. (Plant Response to Fire)
Fuels and condition. On the moist to mesic sites it favors, bigleaf maple can contribute substantial large-leaf litter to site fuel loads. (Fuels)
Source taxon: Acer macrophyllum · exact scientific name ·
review written 2011-12 · page updated 2026-02-25 ·
source record
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ extended zone (30-100 m) [FireSmart BC Home Ignition Zone] (with its recommendation)
Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes: Southern and Western Oregon [osu-frn6-oregon-regions] (with its recommendation)
Fire-resistant plant profile galleries: Bigleaf maple — Acer macrophyllum [osu-2023-trees-gallery] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
“Fire-Resistant Plant Materials for Oregon”
· condition: green
Acer macrophyllum (Bigleaf maple) is listed under “Trees—deciduous” for Southern and Western Oregon. The guide says most listed plants require some irrigation during Oregon's dry summer months and must be maintained in a healthy condition.
