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Sara Duncan

In Oregon, homes don’t come from the hardware store

May 1, 2024 By Sara Duncan

**This opinion originally ran in the Portland Tribune

It’s rare to see Democrats and Republicans come together as productively as they recently did with the passage of a $376 million package aimed at addressing Oregon’s chronic undersupply of housing.

Despite divisive national rhetoric, Oregon legislators of all stripes are realizing the only reliable way out of our housing crisis is through building needed housing.

But Oregonians must recognize the critical resources that make this possible. We can’t add 36,000 new homes to our Amazon shopping cart each year — and those new homes won’t come from the local hardware store. They will come from the labor of working Oregonians constructing homes out of sustainably sourced, carbon-friendly building materials produced by 10 million acres of Oregon’s privately owned forests.

Every 60 seconds, Oregon’s 30 million acres of forest grow enough wood to build a typical sized house. That’s more than 526,000 houses per year. However, 20 million acres of those forests are either set aside as wilderness or have limited to no harvest, making private forests the key to locally sourced lumber.

We are lucky to live in one of the best places in the world to sustainably grow and harvest trees using the most modern environmental protections for forest practices in the world. Our state’s native species — Douglas fir — produces one of the most highly sought after building products available. Building with wood just makes sense; it’s the only building product that stores carbon long term and is less carbon intensive to produce than alternatives.

But Oregon’s timber industry is also one of the most highly regulated in the state — and some lawmakers seem intent on making it more difficult to provide needed wood products despite the fact that building homes with Oregon-grown wood aligns with everyone’s shared climate goals for our state.

We’ve seen several sawmills in western Oregon close in the past six months — and signs indicate there are more to come — in part due to regulations that restrict harvestable timber, adding to the decline of our rural communities and costing many Oregonians good paying jobs. Between the 2020 Labor Day fires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres of future wood supply, the Private Forest Accord which imposed sweeping upgrades to environmental protections but also decreased acres for harvest, and the state’s Habitat Conservation Plan that will reduce harvest on state forests by more than 30% — the forest sector is at a breaking point.

Additional regulations driven by environmental NIMBYism will only further constrain timber harvest and make building homes with Oregon-grown wood even harder.

Lawmakers recognized the barriers that homebuilders and municipalities are facing by taking on temporary reforms to permitting processes, restrictive zoning laws and environmental regulations.

The same common sense should apply to sourcing local lumber to build new homes.

Poll after poll shows Oregonians want our leaders to address the housing shortage — and they support building more housing across the state. Now, those same Oregonians must also recognize wood remains the only sustainable, carbon smart homebuilding material. It is renowned for its versatility, sustainability and aesthetic appeal. It’s time we acknowledge Oregon’s forests as the valuable resource they are — providing the raw materials essential for constructing homes, infrastructure and the common household products we all use every day.

It is now up to Oregon’s lawmakers to acknowledge forestry’s pivotal role in achieving Oregon’s ambitious housing production goals. By unleashing the full potential of Oregon’s timber industry, policymakers can bolster housing affordability, stimulate economic growth and foster job creation across the state.

Chris Edwards is the president of Oregon Forest Industries Council, a trade association representing more than 50 Oregon forest landowners and forest products manufacturers.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Carbon, Manufacturing, Wood products

Director of Forest Protection

April 4, 2024 By Sara Duncan

OFIC is currently recruiting for a Director of Forest Protection. Please see this link for a full job description.

All interested applicants are encouraged to send a cover letter, resume and references to Chris@ofic.com no later than the end of the day, Thursday April 18. Interviews will be conducted soon thereafter, with a goal of filling the position by early May.

Filed Under: Blog

Board of Forestry Advances 70-year Forest Plan

March 7, 2024 By Sara Duncan

Forces County and Forestry Department Budgets into the Red

[SALEM, March 7, 2024] – After three failed motions to either revise the draft Habitat Conservation Plan to increase harvest or delay the vote, today the Oregon Board of Forestry voted four-to-three to advance a 70-year Habitat Conservation Plan that will cost rural Oregon counties millions of dollars and send the Department of Forestry’s operating budget into the red.

“While we are not surprised by today’s vote, we are extremely disappointed,” said OFIC President Chris Edwards. “Options were on the table to ensure species thrive while conserving critical jobs and our capacity to build homes from locally grown Oregon trees. Instead, there was lot of process but not a lot of progress, and in the end the Board made a decision that sacrificed too much and added to a growing list of unbalanced choices in this state; choices that haven’t been leading to good outcomes for working families. And there is no evidence this one will be terribly different.”

The plan has been controversial from the beginning, as timber harvest on state forests are an important source of revenue for the Oregon Department of Forestry and for 15 Forest Trust Land Counties and hundreds of taxing districts with which the state has nearly a century old contractual relationship to actively manage land the counties deeded to the state. In return, the Department provides 64 percent of the revenues produced from timber harvest to the counties for critical public services.

After releasing the draft plan two years ago, the Board has heard from thousands of Oregonians in public and written testimony, including from legislators, county representatives, forest sector employees and rural Oregonians, asking for changes that would produce a better balance. Alternatives were proposed by experts that would have increased harvest levels while still maintaining species protection. In response to such a high volume of disagreement and controversy, recent Board meetings have dramatically restricted opportunities for testimony or sidelined the public to forums where the Board wasn’t present.

Despite that, and the fact that the most recent modeling data indicate the proposed plan will generate far more habitat (150 percent more) than originally projected, last Friday, State Forester Cal Mukumoto released his recommendation to advance the plan with no changes.

“The recommendation by State Forester Mukumoto is rather disheartening,” said Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar. “Counties should be treated and viewed as partners in the management of these forests. We entrusted them to the state for long-term management in partnership, however in two years of discussing this plan there have not been any changes made that the counties have requested. Our communities will not be the same. More mills will close, and counties will have increased expenses that frankly, we do not know how we will fund.”  

Because most counties distribute a significant amount of revenues they receive from state forest harvest to local schools, it will be local school districts that receive the largest cuts.  

“Fortunately, we have a safety net in the state called the school equalization plan,” said Coos County Commissioner John Sweet. “But this is going to put a burden of millions of dollars upon that plan. I hope the people that run that know this and have those resources. There are a few small rural school districts who get more money from harvest revenues than they will from school equalization.”  

On Tuesday, Governor Tina Kotek sent a letter to the Board of Forestry expressing her commitment to work with the counties and bring a proposal to the 2025 legislative session to permanently address the estimated financial shortfall the counties will experience because of the reduced harvest associated with the Habitat Conservation Plan.  

“[The Department’s legislative coordinator] discussed the experience in the Legislature this session – described as a ‘tight fiscal environment’ – where there was an ask for $3.5 million from the General Fund that was turned down for [the] Department,” said Skaar. “I appreciate the governor’s optimism, but it’s a very frightening space to be looking at a wing and a prayer that the Legislature refills that for all of us. If we couldn’t find $3.5 million, where will we find the $35 million.”  

The plan would also reduce revenue used to fund the Department’s state lands division in the coming biennium close to $30 million; money the agency currently uses to pay the salaries of employees who maintain forest roads, replant and restore state forests after wildfire, and even serve as firefighters during the height of fire season.   

“If harvest levels drop to 167 million board feet, this is an $88 million biennial reduction to the Department and the trust counties,” said Board member Karla Chamber. “Over 70 years this is $3.08 billion coming out of those 15 trust counties and the Department without interest, the very agency we need financially healthy to fight wildfires. If we look to Oregon taxpayers to pay for all of this, are we better off? There is no financial plan for this Habitat Conservation Plan; a future negotiation is not a budget plan, a contract or a commitment.”

The Department set out to develop a Habitat Conservation Plan for management of over 600,000 acres of Oregon’s western state forests, starting in 2017, to ensure species conservation and financial viability for the Department. A Habitat Conservation Plan is a voluntary plan or agreement available to landowners under the federal Endangered Species Act to protect wildlife species and the ecosystems on which they depend. It is intended to ensure landowners’ operational flexibility and assurances while providing for the needs of fish and wildlife.

In 2018 the Board approved pursuit of the plan based on a business case analysis and modeling data that projected harvest levels under a Habitat Conservation Plan would be roughly 250 million board feet – which roughly matched what the Department had been harvesting annually since 2000. As the plan developed, that number was initially revised down to roughly 225 million board feet, a number the Department continued to use until last year when more accurate modeling data indicated the plan would produce closer to 168-187 million board feet annually, roughly 30 percent less than originally promised.

###  

The Oregon Forest Industries Council is a trade association representing more than 50 Oregon forestland owners and forest products manufacturers. OFIC’s members combine sustainable forest management practices with the latest science and technology to continuously improve the environmental, social and economic value of healthy working forests. We protect and manage more than three million acres of Oregon forestlands, protect employment of over 60,000 Oregonians and make Oregon the nation’s largest state producer of softwood lumber, plywood and engineered wood. For more information, visit ofic.com.

Filed Under: News, Press Releases Tagged With: state forests

OFIC Celebrates One Year of Podcasting

February 19, 2024 By Sara Duncan

February 19, 2024

Last February, OFIC launched a new podcast aimed at policymakers in Oregon called Forestry Smart Policy.

The podcast has one mission: provide context and knowledge on foundational, current and emerging topics impacting forest management in Oregon.

The goal is simple: intelligent, sustainable, healthy decision making.

From the outset we acknowledge we are unapologetic advocates for the forest sector. We do this job without moral conflict – the people on this podcast are here because we strongly believe forestry is part of the solution to some of Oregon’s biggest challenges. We’re here because we’re subject matter experts who take pride in our ability to distill complex forestry topics into manageable, useful information, and we specialize in a science-based approach to synthesizing literature and multiple ways of knowing to develop our content.

This podcast may challenge what you think you know, or it may make you think twice about conclusions you’ve already made. Sometimes you may not like what you hear, and sometimes we’ll talk about issues that make us uncomfortable, too.

But trust our information is grounded in science, facts, and practicality about how the forest sector actually operates. If you have questions, you can always drop us a line at podcast@ofic.com. We hope each episode makes you think, and maybe learn something new.

Forestry Smart Policy can be found on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon music and others.

Filed Under: New

Wildfires are an All-Oregonian problem

February 19, 2024 By Sara Duncan

**This opinion originally appeared in the Portland Tribune

Kyle Williams Feb 16, 2024

It has been frustrating to read the incomplete media coverage on Sen. Elizabeth Steiner’s wildfire funding bill (House Bill 4133). While salacious headlines get clicks, the actual story is less scandalous.

Here’s the less exciting version: the bill comes from a work group I participated in led by Sen. Steiner. It consisted of six different size and type of landowners (conservation, tribal, ranchland, county, and large and small forestland) who directly pay taxes to fund the Oregon Department of Forestry’s (ODF) wildfire fighting costs. The goal was to address an affordability crisis related to the growing costs of wildfire.

We can all agree wildfires are increasingly affecting our health, economy, quality of living and, worse, costing lives and burning whole communities.

And while that’s a huge problem, it’s not one caused by private landowners who help fund ODF’s system. The vast majority (over three-quarters) of fires that put smoke into the air and threaten communities start on federal land, not land protected by ODF. But Oregon’s landowners and ODF spend firefighting money preventing those fires that start on federal land from spreading to private land and communities.Clearly, wildfire is an all-Oregonian problem and needs an all-Oregonian solution.

That was one of the principles of Sen. Steiner’s work group. The goal was to address increased costs from a 2021 bill that directed several million dollars in ODF investment to boost their ability to fight wildfire. That meant those landowners’ taxes went up — more than 40% in some cases. For several ranchers and small forestland owners, that increase threatened to put them out of business.

Oregon’s wildfire funding structure is the most complicated in the nation. In the simplest of terms, the system is funded roughly half by the General Fund (all Oregon taxpayers) and half by rural landowners (forestland, ranchland, etc.) Fortunately, the system itself is also the most effective in the nation — ODF puts out roughly 96% of fires on the land it protects at 10 acres or less.

Sen. Steiner did something no other legislator has done — she invested the time, and pulled in the right experts, to fully understand the system. And then she helped the group develop a fair proposal that worked for everyone involved.

It did two things: slightly increased taxes that landowners pay and redirected them so local dollars will be paying for local firefighters — and it asked the General Fund to pay for ODF’s statewide administrative costs to match how all other state agencies are funded. As a result, all landowner rates — not just large private forestland owners — went down a little (enough to keep folks from going broke) and the General Fund contribution went up a little, partly in recognition that all Oregonians should pitch in a little more to protect our air and communities.

An initial idea would have brought in additional money for the General Fund: asking all property owners (not just those whose land ODF protects) to pay $10 per year. That idea got dropped before the bill was introduced, which means the landowners will need to increase their contribution fill that gap.

Earlier this February, Legislators learned they have $560 million more to work with than anticipated, so asking the General Fund to pay a bit more for statewide services doesn’t seem out of the picture.

Also incomplete in the reporting was the comparison between how much Oregon forestland owners pay for firefighting compared to Washington. It is true that Oregon landowners directly pay more for fire protection than in any other state. It is also true that Washington landowners pay different taxes into their General Fund than in Oregon. So do Oregon landowners — we pay more for family medical leave and pay corporate excise and income taxes that Washington doesn’t pay. When one considers the entire tax burden on the sector instead of only narrowly looking at one part, the contributions in each state are very similar. And Oregon’s contributions may be greater now due to an increase just last year in the Forest Products Harvest Tax as a result of the Private Forest Accord and an increase in fire cost burden resulting from that omnibus wildfire bill passed in 2021.

We hope common sense Oregonians are willing to look beyond the attention-grabbing headlines and listen to the real story, which can be found on the most recent episode of the Forestry Smart Policy podcast, where Sen. Steiner explains the origins and process of the work group.

Kyle Williams of Albany is the director of Forest Protection for the Oregon Forest Industries Council and has more than 20 years of experience working in the fire protection system throughout Oregon on both private and public forestland.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Fire

Department of Forestry Mishandles Plan for State Forests

February 8, 2023 By Sara Duncan

Data Reveals Plan Forces Budgets into the Red

[SALEM, February 8, 2023] – Last week, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) revealed the agency used inaccurate modeling data to develop a plan to manage over 600,00 acres of Oregon’s state forests for the next 70 years. As a result, they have vastly miscalculated the true financial impact the plan would have on both the agency’s budget and the budgets of 15 Oregon counties who depend on revenue from state forests.

New data released last week indicate the plan would reduce revenue used to fund the agency’s state lands division in the coming biennium close to $30 million; money the agency currently uses to pay the salaries of employees who maintain forest roads, replant and restore state forests after wildfire, and even serve as firefighters during the height of fire season.  

“There is no good reason that the most productive forestland in the state of Oregon cannot produce sustainable funding for local governments, jobs, timber supply and environmental services such as critical wildlife habitat and clean water,” said OFIC President Chris Edwards. “However, the new data reveals that the department has missed the mark. Whether it is their intent or not, ODF and the Board of Forestry are essentially leveraging the Legislature into spending more General Fund to subsidize the state forests program and pay for county services because of their management strategy choices.”

The plan developed by ODF not only creates financial stress on an agency that has been plagued with financial and leadership issues for years, it also will dramatically reduce money for rural county services like fire departments, community colleges, healthcare centers, emergency response, libraries, recreation centers, and K-12 school districts.

“The proposed plan will reduce local government revenues by nearly $8.5 million, impacting education (K-12 and college), public safety, transportation, health care and other first responders,” said Clatsop County Commissioner Courtney Bangs. “It will also have broader implications for the local economy and lead to the elimination of family wage jobs. The Board of Forestry’s final decision will impact our community’s health and well-being for generations to come and we deserve better.”

As recently as three months ago, ODF represented to the Board of Forestry that their plan would initially produce 250 million board feet of timber harvest annually, based on modeling data they’ve been using to develop the plan over the last two years. At every step during the process, forest products companies and county representatives have raised concerns about the projections and have questioned their accuracy. Last week, the agency applied the plan to implementation on the ground, and new data indicates harvest levels will be as low as 165 million board feet a year, a 34 percent reduction from what was previously represented, and will not increase over the life of the 70-year plan.

“ODF has been developing this plan behind closed doors, and what little information they do release to us seems unrealistic, which is what we’ve been concerned about since day one,” said Tillamook County Commissioner David Yamamoto. “Now we know that the worst-case scenario is true: the data they used to model impacts was wrong, and the actual impact will be much greater. Clatsop County will be the hardest hit for sure, but this will create job losses throughout the state.”

Two years ago, ODF secured permission from the Board of Forestry to pursue a Habitat Conservation Plan under the assumption that such a plan would improve both conservation and financial outcomes on state forests. A Habitat Conservation Plan is a voluntary plan or agreement available to landowners under the federal Endangered Species Act to protect wildlife species and the ecosystems on which they depend. It is intended to ensure landowners operational flexibility and assurances while providing for the needs of fish and wildlife.

The plan has been controversial from the beginning, as timber harvest on state forests are an important source of revenue for the department and for 15 Forest Trust Land Counties and hundreds of taxing districts with which the state has nearly a century old contractual relationship to actively manage land the counties deeded to the state. In return, ODF provides 64 percent of the revenues produced from timber harvest to the counties for critical public services.

“We hope to see strong leadership from the Chair of the Board of Forestry calling for reconsideration of the path they are on. It is a 70-year plan. They have time to go back to the drawing board and draft a sustainable win-win-win plan for the future of our local communities,” Edwards said.

The department is currently taking comment through March 6 at 5 p.m. on the plans that put the prescriptions of the plan into action on state forests. The implementation plans are available on ODF’s website. Comments can be submitted online by using this form.

Filed Under: News, Press Releases Tagged With: state forests

Bipartisan legislation marks new era for Oregon forestry

May 24, 2022 By Sara Duncan

May 22, 2022

**This story originally published in The Oregonian

Kate Brown, Chris Edwards and Bob Van Dyk

Brown is governor of Oregon. Edwards is president of the Oregon Forest and Industries Council. Van Dyk is policy director for Oregon and California at the Wild Salmon Center.

Last week, the most comprehensive changes to Oregon’s forestry regulations in 50years were ceremonially signed into law. What is remarkable about the bipartisan Private Forest Accord is not just that it is the most significant update to the Forest Practices Act since 1971, governing the management of more than 10 million acres of private forestland, but how the legislation came to fruition. It’s a story that represents the Oregon Way: old adversaries setting aside their differences and coming together to solve tough problems.

Under the Private Forest Accord, the timber industry and conservation groups reached an unprecedented agreement on the most effective ways to improve protections for the aquatic habitat needed by native fish and amphibians. These changes provide important safeguards for fisheries and clean water, while also securing certainty for forest landowners and economic stability for rural Oregon communities. It is built on the understanding that, by grounding our policy in science-based forest management, we can strike a balance between protecting the health of our forests and creating jobs and economic growth in rural communities. That’s a win-win for Oregon.

This new path forward takes Oregon out of years of gridlock about how private forestlands are managed — marked by countless rounds of heated disagreements at the Capitol, the Board of Forestry, and the local level that led the two sides to file nine competing ballot measures in 2019. In early 2020, they stepped back from the brink by abandoning the measures and beginning negotiations. And in a time of extraordinary divisiveness, the agreement reached by longstanding adversaries signals a moment that should make all Oregonians proud.

The new legislation covers a gamut of actions: increasing no-harvest zones next to streams for shade and water filtration; forest road upgrades that improve fish migration upstream; state-of-the-art computer modeling to protect landslide-prone hillsides; millions of dollars of state and private sector investment for creation of wildlife habitat.

But perhaps most impressive is the process of good faith collaboration and compromise that got us here.

During a time of deep political division, 24 organizations representing two sides with a history of high-stakes conflict set aside their differences and agreed to sit around the table, take a hard look at the latest science, have difficult conversations, and find common ground.

The success we celebrated last week demonstrates how opposing sides can work together on viable solutions to some of the toughest problems facing Oregonians today.

While all Oregonians should take a moment to celebrate – the work is far from over. The rules that implement these changes still require approval by the Board of Forestry and need to be communicated to more than 65,000 forest landowners in every corner of Oregon. This will be followed by years of scientific monitoring and fine tuning on the ground to ensure the changes have the desired outcomes we all set out to accomplish.

The agreement also establishes a framework for future changes to forest practices that keeps the spirit of collaboration alive. This process prioritizes sound science and gives a diverse set of Oregonians a voice in how our forests are managed on a regular basis. This will help to ensure that future generations of Oregonians can continue to enjoy renewable Oregon-grown building products, cold and clean water, wildlife habitat, clean air and the unique recreational opportunities our lush Oregon forests provide.

We’re proud to be a part of this moment, and we invite all Oregonians to join us in celebration and embrace our shared future of collaborative forestry in Oregon. Onward, together.

Filed Under: New Tagged With: Water

How a long-sought agreement led to Oregon changing its logging laws

May 17, 2022 By Sara Duncan

April 21, 2022

**This story originally published via the Jefferson Public Exchange

The rules are different for logging depending upon where the trees are in Oregon.

The national forests and Bureau of Land Management forests have more stringent requirements than privately-owned lands. And that’s been a major sore spot for conservation groups for years: that the Oregon Forest Practices Act was not even as strong as similar laws in neighboring states.

But the OFPA got an update in the 2022 legislative session, one of the outcomes of the Private Forest Accord, a meeting-of-the-minds between the timber industry and its critics. The coming together was seen as a desirable alternative to warring ballot measures.

The Oregon Forest & Industries Council was a big player, and the Wild Salmon Center had a stake as well.

Chris Edwards from OFIC and Bob Van Dyk from WSC chat about what got into the legislation, and what comes next.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Water

Timber Companies Step Up to Fight Archie Creek Fire

October 6, 2020 By Sara Duncan

By Evita Garza | KEZI | Sept 18, 2020

**This story originally appeared on KEZI

ROSEBURG, Ore. — Local timber companies are stepping up to help firefighters as they battle the Archie Creek Fire.

Lone Rock Resources, based in Roseburg, sent 50 of their operational employees to fight the fire when it started last Tuesday.

Staff said they’ve also sent more than 20 pieces of their own equipment to help firefighters secure fire lines and cool hotspots.

Company president Toby Luther said many of their employees had some fire training before they were sent out.

“In situations like this when the state and federal resources are spread so thin, if we didn’t have those industrial resources, we would have so many more losses in those communities,” he said.

Luther said he is proud of their employees for the work they’ve done so far. With limited resources around the state, he said they will be fighting this fire as long as they’re needed to.

“Ten of our own employees had their families evacuated,” he said. “So, in some cases, guys were out fighting fires during the day and going home and helping their neighbors protect their homes at night.”

Luther said there are multiple timber companies working alongside them, including Seneca Joes Timber Company and Roseburg Forest Products.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Fire

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