Tell the Board of Forestry to Adopt the Western Oregon State Forests Management Plan

Six years of hearings come down to one two-hour meeting. On Wednesday, July 22, the Oregon Board of Forestry votes on whether to adopt a new Forest Management Plan for more than 620,000 acres of state forest across Clatsop, Tillamook, Lincoln, and west Lane counties. The Oregon Department of Forestry calls this its Northwest Area, and it includes the forested slopes that drain into Alsea Bay and the streams coho run up every fall.

The plan pairs with the Habitat Conservation Plan the Board advanced in March. Together they decide how coastal state forests are managed for decades. The timber industry has fought protections in this plan at every step. Chuck Willer at the Coast Range Association has worked it through the State Forest Coalition the whole six years, and he is asking neighbors to weigh in before the vote.