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

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Why this Matters

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.

Related Files

Steps to Take

Step 1

See what is at stake. The Oregon Department of Forestry's map of the Northwest Area forests (PDF) shows the 620,000-plus acres the plan covers.

Step 2

Send a written comment before July 19 The single most useful thing you can say is: adopt the Forest Management Plan. To add impact, select one or more recommended amendments to address from the State Forest Coalition's summary (see related file), or simply state that the Coalition's recommendations should be strongly considered in the adopted FMP. Submit your comment via the BOF comment portal: https://www.oregon.gov/odf/board/pages/commentsboard.aspx or Email your comment to boardofforestry@oregon.gov, attention Board of Forestry. The Board's guidance on submitting testimony (PDF) explains how to submit meaningful testimony. Substance matters more than length, and each individually written comment will be considered.

Step 3

Watch the vote. You can also submit oral testimony if desired. The meeting is live-streamed on the ODF YouTube channel from 8:30am to 10:30am on July 22. It is a virtual meeting, so you can attend from your kitchen table.

Sample Text

Members of the Board of Forestry,

I live on the Oregon Coast, and the state forests in your Northwest Area are the watershed I drink from and the country I walk in. I urge you to adopt the Western Oregon State Forests Management Plan with the State Forest Coalition's recommended amendments at your July 22 meeting.

Six years of public process, science, and negotiation went into this plan. It works alongside the Habitat Conservation Plan you advanced in March to give these forests, and the salmon and marbled murrelets that depend on them, a management framework that lasts. Rejecting it now would waste that work and leave more than 620,000 acres without a durable plan.

Please vote to adopt.

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Your town]

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