Now the hard work begins for the Private Forest Accord
Last weekend Governor Brown announced that following 10 months of intense negotiations agreement was reached between large and small forest landowners and over a dozen environmental groups. The clock not only approached midnight on the deadline day for an agreement it went into overtime at the Governor’s urging. The Private Forest Accord, PFA, is the result of a truce called in 2020 over the filing of competing initiatives dealing with forest management, herbicides application and the Board of Forestry.
Rather than fight it out at the ballot box, the warring parties passed legislation, SB 1602, in 2020’s first special session. The bill immediately established new herbicide spray buffers around homes and schools and set off a facilitated process that examined potential changes to Oregon’s Forest Practices Act, FPA, and hopefully will result in an Endangered Species Act Habitat Conservation Plan, HCP. An HCP for private forest land will provide ESA protection through an Incidental Take Permit for forest management activities in compliance with the FPA.
The Oregon Department of Forestry, will develop the HCP in coordination with the National Marine Fisheries Administration and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This will involve a full-blown National Environmental Policy Act process for an Environmental Impact Statement.
Meanwhile, signatories to the PFA are developing legislative concepts to implement the FPA changes for the 2022 legislative session for stream buffers, steep slopes, forest roads, and an adaptive management process for adjustments to forest management in the future. Some of the changes will be handled by rulemaking rather than new legislation and will be subject to existing requirements for science-based and cost-effective changes to forest rules and regulations.
After spending untold hours negotiating, the parties are still working on the details and prescriptions of the PFA. The PFA established an ongoing process for resolving forestry disputes to avoid lawsuits and ballot box fights.
Here is some of the media coverage of the PFA
Oregon forest deal promises 'new era' of protections, economic growth on 10M private acres
Deal sets course for overhaul of private forest management in Oregon
Oregon timber accord: More restrictions, less uncertainty
Agreement is a bright spot in state forest policy
Editorial: Bridging the gap between conservation and industry
Negotiations and Threats Produce Forest Deal
