The 2012 Forest Report

Oregon Forest Resource Institute   

January 23, 2013

For immediate release

Contact: Paul Barnum – 971-673-2954

New video highlights ‘The Forest Report’

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Oregon Forest Resource Institute has produced a companion video to The Forest Report, a comprehensive economic study about the state’s forest sector.

The seven-minute video covers the main points of the 200-page study. Interviews with an economist, a conservationist, an industry analyst and a forest landowner help tell the story.

Dr. Tom Potiowsky, a Portland State University professor and one of the report’s authors, lays out the facts: 75 percent of Oregon’s annual timber harvest comes from private timberland, and the state’s forest sector accounts for 76,000 direct jobs and billions of dollars in income.

Mark Stern, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Forest Initiative, and Lindsay Warness, a forest policy analyst for Boise Cascade, discuss the plight of eastern Oregon’s national forests and the small towns struggling with the loss of mill after mill. They also emphasize that there are solutions that could restore forest health and revitalize rural economies.

The video also features landowner Brenda Woodard, who talks about her family’s forestland in Douglas County – what she calls “the middle of tree-growing country” – and notes how private timberlands are sustainably managed under the Oregon Forest Practices Act.

The brief video puts a human face on The 2012 Forest Report, which found that the forest sector, though hit hard by the recession, remains a vital contributor to Oregon’s economy. It is poised to rebound and add thousands of new jobs as the national housing market improves. The recovery will be stronger if state and federal leaders can find ways to provide Oregon mills with a stable, dependable supply of timber from the state’s vast federal forest resource, which is in need of more active management, the report says.

Watch the video on YouTube. Or view it at OFRI’s dedicated website, TheForestReport.org, where there is both a 12-page summary and the full report available for viewing or download.

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Coalition Warns of County Payments Fallout

Coalition Warns of County Payments Fallout

As the governor's county payment advisory panel considers options, conservationists warn of new restrictions on private lands and logging.

A Douglas fir reaches for the sky (photo by Erik Fernandez).

PORTLAND, OREGON Jan 18, 2013

Oregon Wild and a coalition of environmental litigators, including Earthjustice and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, have sent a letter to over 40 private landowners and Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber warning of possible new restrictions on private lands logging.

The groups warn if environmental safeguards on the public "O&C" lands in Western Oregon are reduced to allow increased logging to generate funding for county budgets, federal law may require increased restrictions on state and private lands to mitigate damage to endangered species and clean water.

The coalition took the unusual step of mailing individual copies of the letter to every private timberland owner in Oregon, Washington, and California who operates under a federal Habitat Conservation Plan or Safe Harbor Agreement.

These documents, developed by the Clinton administration, allow for weaker environmental protection for state and private logging lands based upon the stronger standards for federal public lands under the Northwest Forest Plan.

If protections for federal public lands in Oregon are reduced, the difference for conservation needs under the science-based requirements of the Northwest Forest Plan will have to be made up by private timberlands and state forests.

The letter explains: "Typical logging practices on private lands, such as clear-cutting and herbicide spraying, can cause extremely significant direct and indirect harm to species such as northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets, and coho salmon, and result in polluted run-off into rivers and streams."

"The structure created by the Northwest Forest Plan—particularly the network of Late Successional and Riparian Reserves that connect conservation areas across the entire region—has focused endangered species recovery efforts on federal public lands. This has allowed private landowners to continue logging on their lands without significant new restrictions."

Governor Kitzhaber convened a panel this past autumn to find a solution to the county payments dilemma facing some cash-strapped Oregon counties. As the coalition letter notes, "We strongly support a solution to the funding crisis facing some Western Oregon counties. However, any increased logging on federal public lands in Western Oregon must be scientifically and legally sound. If federal conservation contributions are reduced, private and state landowners would be legally required to increase their efforts."

Read the letter to Governor Kitzhaber here.

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Know Your Forest

Know Your Forest
January 10, 2013

For immediate release

Contact: Dave Kvamme – 971-673-2948

KnowYourForest.org: Everything you need to know about managing family forestland

PORTLAND, Ore. – A new website is now available to help the more than 60,000 family forest landowners in Oregon manage their property more successfully.

The site, at KnowYourForest.org, is a comprehensive resource for many of the questions that come up with family forestlands. Topics it covers include harvest, fire protection, wildlife and much more.

“It won’t quite plant trees for you, but this is the next best thing to having a staff,” said Mike Cloughesy, director of forestry for the Oregon Forest Resources Institute. “If you have a question about your forestland, this is the place to start.”

OFRI was one of the organizations that helped build the site for the Partnership for Forestry Education. A year in the making, the site went live Jan. 2.

For any forestland owners thinking about harvesting timber, the site provides information on finding a logger, figuring out what kind of mill would buy logs, certifying forestland, and knowing state rules for logging and replanting. Even landowners who aren’t planning to log can learn about creating better wildlife habitat, managing invasive species and protecting against wildfire.

The site also has a calendar of relevant conferences and events. And it includes a directory of experts – from landowner associations, to government agencies to contractors and consultants – as well as resources specific to each county, such as local foresters and watershed councils.

The website works hand-in-hand with OFRI’s recently published 16-page booklet, “Family Forests: A guide to technical, financial and educational resources for family forest landowners.”

The Partnership for Forestry Education includes OFRI, the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, the Oregon Tree Farm System the U.S. Forest Service, Oregon State University Extension, the Oregon Department of Forestry and many other groups.

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