Work needed to turn back dangerous fire trends, according to new OFRI report

July 30, 2014

For immediate release

Contact: Dave Kvamme – 971-673-2948

Work needed to turn back dangerous
fire trends, according to new OFRI report

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Oregon Forest Resources Institute is urging stronger action to turn back dangerous fire trends.

In a new report and video called “State of Fire,” the institute says that changing climate conditions, past forest management decisions and thousands more people choosing to live closer to the forest’s edge are intensifying and complicating fire risks and firefighting in Oregon.

As of July, wildfire on private and public forestland protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry had burned 36,888 acres – seven times the 10-year average. On the heels of 2013’s “epic” fire season, it’s more evidence supporting worrisome trends: higher number of acres burned, more severe fires, longer fire seasons and soaring costs.

"We’re facing another tough summer for firefighters and landowners," said Mike Cloughesy, OFRI’s director of forestry. “And while there is good work happening to reverse some of the trends, we need to do more, and we need to pick up the pace.”

“State of Fire” describes how fire's behavior historically differed in western and eastern parts of the state – and then compares that to current conditions. For example, fires in the drier forests east of the Cascades and in southwestern Oregon historically happened frequently, but were not severely destructive.

"'State of Fire' offers a fresh perspective on the worsening condition of fire-prone forests," said OFRI Executive Director Paul Barnum. “It points out practical realities and urges stronger action.” Specifically, the report recommends action on two fronts:

·       In the wet forests, because the threats to lives and property are so great, Oregon must ensure that firefighting capacity and technology is up to the task.

·       In the dry forests, millions of acres need restoration. Local collaboration and active management can restore forest to a more resilient condition. But more funding is needed to do more, faster.

“In the dry forests, we’ve largely lost the good, low-intensity, frequent fire,” said Stephen Fitzgerald, an Oregon State University professor who consulted on the project. "Unfortunately, one consequence of that is that we’re now at risk of more high-severity fire, which isn't characteristic of those forests."

OFRI worked with an array of state and federal fire-response agencies, as well as private landowners and nongovernmental agencies, to produce the 16-page illustrated publication and 12-minute video that make up “State of Fire.”

"This is a timely report on an important topic that every Oregonian should seek to understand. We hope it will push the conversation along, because we need to reverse recent trends,” Cloughesy said.

Both the publication and video are available at OregonForests.org.

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Oregon Forest Resources Institute: OFRI was created by the Oregon Legislature in 1991 to advance public and landowner education about the importance of forests, forest management and forest products. It is governed by a 13-member board and funded by a dedicated forest products harvest tax. To learn more about OFRI, please visit OregonForests.org

‘The Oregon Way’ explains state’s unique efforts to protect fish habitat

The Oregon Way

Forests and Fish Video

Portland, Ore. —

The Oregon Forest Resources Institute’s newest special report offers an introduction to the state’s unique approach to protecting fish habitat in forest streams.

The 16-page publication, titled “The Oregon Way: Forests and Fish – Protecting Aquatic Habitat in Oregon’s Forests,” features an introduction by Gov. John Kitzhaber. “Oregon’s tiered approach to habitat conservation, while unique, may not be perfect. However, it is a good reflection of the people of this state: adaptive, responsive, inclusive, innovative – and committed to protecting our rich natural resources, for Oregonians and fish alike.”

OFRI Executive Director Paul Barnum says he hopes the publication will help inform the public debate as the recovery of listed fish species continues to be in the news.

“Private forest management is facing environmental litigation, potential regulatory changes and a public that continues to be skeptical about modern forest practices,” Barnum says. “With this special report, we’ve produced a highly readable introduction to this complex topic, to help people understand the issue and how it’s evolved over the past 40 years.”

The publication explains the three prongs of Oregon’s effort to protect habitat:

1. Land-use planning laws discourage housing and commercial development from sprawling into forestland; water quality and habitat on forestland, public or private, are generally far better than in developed areas.
2. Strong rules regulate forest practices, and these rules continually evolve as scientific research improves understanding of fish, habitat and the effects of forest management.
3. The Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds encourages local watershed councils and private landowners to collaborate to voluntarily improve and restore habitat.

“Ongoing science continues to be directed at understanding forest management’s effects on fish and streams, with studies going back to the 1960s,” Barnum says. “Results of current studies are quite encouraging. They indicate we’re doing a good job of balancing the benefits of a competitive wood-products industry while protecting Oregon’s native salmon, steelhead and cutthroat. We still have work to do, but I think Oregon is currently doing it as well or better than anyone.”

OFRI worked with the Watersheds Research Cooperative, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Governor’s Natural Resources Office, Oregon State University and private landowners to produce the report.

The publication and an eight-minute companion video are available for viewing, downloading or ordering, free of charge, at OregonForests.org. 

For more information contact Contact: Dave Kvamme – 971-673-2948

The Problem is not in Salem

When Rough & Ready Lumber Company announced the closure of the family-owned sawmill on April 18^th; legislators filled Oregon’s Capitol with speeches denouncing the loss of 85 family-wage jobs and the closure of one of Oregon’s venerable companies after 90 years.

The speeches brought bipartisan offers to do something, anything, to help. Unfortunately, the problem is not in Salem, the problem is in Washington D.C. Federal forest management has failed forest health, county receipts, rural communities, and the public timber dependent industry the U.S. Forest Service encouraged to locate in the Pacific Northwest following World War II.

Jennifer Phillippi, granddaughter of Rough and Ready’s founders, has graciously responded to media requests for the rest of the story. Her portrayal of the paradox of having a mill located in the middle of a productive National Forest yet her company is unable to purchase sufficient raw materials that would allow Rough and Ready to provide lumber for the improving housing market.

Jennifer’s poise in a difficult situation would have made her late father Lew Krauss, swell with pride. While keeping the sawmill operating, Jennifer has served the timber industry and the public tirelessly as a member of Oregon’s Board of Forestry and before that a board member of the Oregon Forest Resource Institute.

Ron Wyden faces great opportunity or peril In navigating federal forest policy

Will Oregon’s Senior Senator Grab the gold ring?

As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Sen. Ron Wyden is perfectly positioned to resolve the federal forest health/timber supply/county payments conundrum and claim a grand prize.

By rescuing the nearly insolvent O & C counties, restoring forest health in Eastern Oregon while providing much needed timber supply to create family-wage jobs in rural Oregon and also increase business for banks, technology developers, and lots of other suppliers in Metropolitan Portland.

Such achievements will cement Sen. Wyden’s legacy alongside other Oregon political greats such as Mark O. Hatfield and Tom McCall. Reps. Greg Walden, Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader, along with Governor John Kitzhaber’s O & C task force spent months developing a compromise plan for the 2.3 million acres of forestland in 18 Western Oregon Counties.

Sen. Wyden has labored for three years crafting a collaborative plan for improving forest health on the National Forests of Eastern Oregon while reinvigorating the timber dependent communities a long way from the I-5 corridor. His new leadership position in the Senate provides the platform to craft and pass generational federal forest legislation.

Ron Wyden once again faces perils of trying to navigate federal forest policy

Oregon O&C forest proposal receives House hearing and a promise: negotiations will continue

Wyden proposes giving some O&C timberlands to tribes

House Takes Up Proposals to Raise Revenue Through Logging

Timber split

The great divide

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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Forest-sector recovery dependent on markets and timber

Forest-sector recovery dependent on markets and timber

Paul Barnum, Oregon Forest Resources Institute

Forest products have long been an economic engine for the state. As a state agency charged with public education about the forest sector, it’s one of OFRI’s core competencies to lead a deep dive into the sector’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

In October, OFRI published its assessment of the economic impact of Oregon’s forest sector. Titled “The 2012 Forest Report,” the 200-page study is the most comprehensive look at sector employment and economic impact in nearly a decade.

The findings may surprise you. For starters, the sector directly employs 76,000 Oregonians who earn, including benefits, a collective $5.2 billion. Another 37,000 people are dependent on the sector, providing it with services and supplies.

To be sure, the Great Recession has taken a toll. As new home construction tumbled from a high of 2.3 million housing starts nationally in 2005 to fewer than 500,000 starts in 2009, Oregon wood products manufacturers cut production. The sector lost 14,000 jobs and $527 million in income. But the housing market is slowly coming back; current data from the U.S. Census Bureau puts new residential housing starts at about 750,000 nationally.

The loss of jobs has been felt hardest in rural areas. Statewide, the sector accounts for 6.8 percent of the economy – $12.7 billion in total economic output. But in some rural areas, the sector represents well over 10 percent of a county’s economic output, employing hundreds of people. In northwest Oregon and southern Oregon, for example, one out of every 10 jobs is tied to the forest sector – twice the state average.

Although the feeble housing market has taken its toll, the new study found that there’s another force restraining the sector’s recovery: timber supply. The federal government manages nearly 60 percent of the forestland in this state, but contributes only 12 percent of the harvest. Conversely, private forestland owners manage 34 percent of the forestland but contribute 75 percent of the harvest. Even allowing for the fact that federal land is not as productive as private, the ratio is badly out of balance.

It’s no surprise, then, that one of the five recommendations of the study is to “Reassess and reshape policies for Oregon’s federal forests.” If Oregon’s rural areas are to fully emerge from the current recession, if they’re ever going to be financially independent, then state leaders must find a way to increase harvest in our federal forests – not only to supply raw material to sawmills and put people back to work, but also to manage our forests for ecosystem health and protect them from wildfire.

A summary of the study can be found at TheForestReport.org, where it is also available for download.

For the forest,

Paul Barnum
Executive Director

Oregon forest sector poised to rebound

Oregon forest sector poised to rebound

See TheForestReport.org

 October 10, 2012

PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon’s forest sector remains a resilient and vital contributor to Oregon’s economy, according to a comprehensive economic study published today by the Oregon Forest Resources Institute. The sector could create thousands of new rural jobs, given the right market conditions and a dependable supply of raw material.

Even as the nation emerges from the Great Recession, one in 20 Oregon jobs depends on active management of forests and the manufacturing of forest products – some 76,000 people. Total annual sector wages were $5.2 billion in Oregon in 2011, according to the study. An additional 37,000 Oregonians are at work supplying and servicing the sector.

The sector’s overall impact on the state’s economy last year was $12.7 billion – nearly 7 percent of the state’s economic base. That wealth was brought to the state as the sector supplied lumber and finished products, such as doors and windows, to a flagging U.S. housing sector that peaked at 2.3 million housing starts in 2006 and plummeted to 478,000 in 2009.

“The U.S. housing market has not rebounded as quickly as it typically does after recession,” said Tom Potiowsky, director of the Northwest Economic Research Center at Portland State University, and a member of the team that collaborated on the report. “But housing starts nationally are on the rise, and this is a good sign for Oregon – especially our rural areas.”

The report sounds a note of caution, calling for a high-level review of federal forest policies that have reduced harvest from public lands to record lows. This lack of harvest, combined with a century of fire suppression, has created unnatural conditions in the federal forests. They are ripe for insect infestation and catastrophic fire. If the federal forest health crisis is not addressed, Oregon could experience more mill closures, as well as the kind of wildfire disasters seen in other Western states, the report states.

“The report recommends solutions that balance the economic benefits of sustainable timber harvest with the dividends of healthy forest ecosystems,” said Paul Barnum, OFRI executive director. “It points out that Oregon's policies and laws are doing a good job of protecting the forest resource. Finally, it notes that through collaborative efforts, we can act to improve the health of federal forests in Oregon. This is especially good news for our state's rural, natural resource-based economies,” Barnum said.

According to the report, the number of forested acres in Oregon has remained nearly constant over the past 30 years. The report states the Oregon Forest Practices Act, which regulates logging on private land, is effective. It also says that the state’s unique system of land use laws and comprehensive planning practices have successfully steered development away from forestland. Across all ownerships, standing timber volume is about the same as it was in 1953, and trend data shows that timber volume is increasing.

“The 2012 Forest Report – An Economic Assessment of Oregon’s Forest and Wood Products Manufacturing Sector” updates a similar study by OFRI in 2004. The current report provides a snapshot of the forest sector’s status and capacity. It examines the sector’s supply and demand factors, as well as its operating environment. The report makes five recommendations:

·       Reshape federal policies for federally managed forests – Current policies evolved from controversy and litigation, not sound forestry. Without a stable, dependable supply of public timber, more mills will close and forest health will continue to decline.

·       Pursue markets overseas – A consortium of state and industry leaders could create momentum for finished wood products that would benefit the sector throughout the state.

·       Defend Oregon’s Forest Practices Act – The Oregon’s Forest Practices Act works. It keeps forests healthy and timber flowing, which encourages private forest ownership and stewardship. Changes to regulations should be based on science and local conditions, not on political compromise.

·       Keep the forest sector a priority – The forest sector can continue being a significant part of Oregon’s economy, especially in rural areas. Keeping it a state priority encourages investment in mills and other infrastructure.

·       Develop “ecosystem services” – State leaders can address how to monetize ecosystem services such as wetland mitigation banks, biodiversity, cold water production and carbon sequestration.

At nearly 200 pages, The 2012 Forest Report is the most exhaustive look at the forest sector in nearly a decade. A summary of the report is available at TheForestReport.org, and the full report can be downloaded from the website.

A dozen researchers from five firms collaborated on The 2012 Forest Report. The Portland-based consultancy Mason, Bruce & Girard led the effort with help from Forest Econ, Inc., Moscow, Idaho; The Northwest Economic Research Center, Portland State University; the Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management, College of Forestry, Oregon State University; and the Beck Group, also in Portland.

OFRI was created in 1991 by the Oregon Legislature to improve public understanding of the state’s forest resources and encourage environmentally sound forest management through landowner education. It is governed by a 13-member board of directors and funded by a dedicated tax on timber harvest.

Contact: Dave Kvamme – 503-805-0857

Oregon forests from a global perspective

By Paul Barnum, OFRI Executive Director

As part of the United Nations-declared “2011 International Year of Forests,” this year’s Starker Lectures will examine “Oregon’s Place in World Forests and Forestry.” Unless you have regular contact with imports or exports, or travel frequently outside the United States, it’s easy to forget that Oregon is vitally connected to the global community.

Why look at Oregon’s forests from a global perspective? Doug Maguire, the Giustina Professor of Forest Management at the OSU College of Forestry, offers these observations:

• The Douglas-fir region is one of the most productive forest regions in the world.
• Unlike other areas in the United States or Europe, a significant amount of primary forest cover still exists in the region.
• Oregon is at the forefront of developing silvicultural systems that conserve native biodiversity and more generally provide a balance of ecosystem services, including timber production, conservation, water quality, carbon sequestration, and enhanced economic and social health.
• Oregon forest products companies compete in a world market, both for buying and selling logs as an industrial raw material, and for marketing manufactured products.
• Oregon has the will and potential to lead a sustainable balance among consumption of wood products, the growing and harvesting of timber, and providing critical levels of ecosystem services.

To this list, I would add that Oregon leads in talent, with the OSU College of Forestry providing a long line of well-educated, qualified forestry professionals and researchers. Plus, the contributions of the U.S. Forest Service Forest Sciences Laboratory and the work of scientists in both the public and private sectors have made us a global leader in advancing scientific forest management.

As newer sectors such as high-tech, clean energy and sportswear have come to the fore, forestry and wood products have had to share the limelight. That’s a good thing, because just as diversity is essential to a forest ecosystem, it’s also necessary for a healthy state economy.

The International Year of Forests is a good time to celebrate the global importance of Oregon forests. Regardless of what sector you hail from, we all can take pride in Oregon forests, enlightened forest management that seeks to conserve and protect the values we love, robust public discussion about how best to accomplish the goal, and the legacy we hope to leave for future generations.

Excerpted from the Oregon Forest Resources Institute's 2011 Winter Outlook.