Forest Resources Division
Contact: Josh Barnard, Division Chief
Statutory Authority: ORS Chapters
321,
526,
527 &
532
The Forest Resources Division is responsible for administration of the Forest Practices Act. The Forest Practices Act requires post-harvest reforestation, streamside buffers and other measures to ensure sound forest management. Division staff also monitor and help preserve forest health, provide technical assistance to landowners, support local urban and community forestry work, and assist federal agencies with forest restoration and resiliency work on federally managed lands.
State Forests Division
Contact: Mike Wilson, Division Chief
Statutory Authority: ORS Chapters
321,
526,
530 &
532
The State Forests Division manages more than 760,000 acres of working forests—also known as Board of Forestry lands—to provide social, economic and environmental benefits for Oregonians. The majority of the revenues from timber harvested from these lands goes to the counties where the timber sales are located to help fund essential local services. This division is also responsible for building and maintaining recreational infrastructure on state forestlands, such as trails and campgrounds.
Fire Protection Division
Contact: Chris Cline, Division Chief
Statutory Authority: ORS Chapters
477 &
526
The Fire Protection Division is the state’s largest fire department. They protect 16 million acres of private, state, and some federal lands through preventing human-caused fires, reducing wildfire risks through improved forest health and resiliency and keeping fires that start as small as possible. This approach minimizes resource loss, fire danger and smoke impact to communities, and suppression costs.
State Board of Forestry
Contact: Eleni Collins, Board Administrator
Statutory Authority: ORS Chapter
526
The seven-member citizen board is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. The board supervises all matters of forest policy, appoints the state forester, adopts rules regulating forest practices and provide general supervision of the state forester’s agency-management responsibilities.
No more than three board members may have a significant portion of their income from the forest products industry. There must be at least one member from each of the state’s three major forest regions: northern, southern and eastern. Members serve four-year terms and no member may serve more than two consecutive full terms. The state forester serves as secretary to the board.
Emergency Fire Cost Committee
Contact: Nancy Hirsch, Administrator
Statutory Authority: ORS
477.750–
477.775
The Emergency Fire Cost Committee oversees the Oregon Forest Land Protection Fund. The fund was established by the Legislature to equalize emergency fire suppression costs among the department’s various protection districts. The emergency funding system is designed to operate as an "insurance policy," where all districts pay premiums into the fund, so money is available to any individual district for fire suppression costs.
Committee for Family Forestlands (CFF)
Statutory Authority: ORS
526.016
The committee researches policies impacting family forestland viability, resource protection and forestry benefits. They then makes recommendations to the Board of Forestry and state forester. The 13-member committee includes seven voting and six non-voting members. Voting members include four family forest owners and one representative each from the environmental community, forest products industry and general public. Non-voting ex officio members may include representatives from ODF, Oregon State University, Oregon small forestland groups, forestry-related industry associations and the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.
Forest Trust Land Advisory Committee
Statutory Authority: ORS
526.156
The committee includes the board of directors of the Council of Forest Trust Land Counties and advises the Board of Forestry and state forester on matters related to state forestlands managed by ODF. The counties that receive revenues from these forestlands are Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Douglas, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook and Washington.
Regional Forest Practice Committees
Statutory Authority: ORS
527.650
These three Regional Forest Practice Committees, serve the northwest, southwest and eastern regions of the state. A majority of committee members must be private forest landowners and persons involved with logging or forest operations. The committees advise the Board of Forestry on current forestry issues and forest management approaches.
Smoke Management Advisory Committee
The committee provides advice and assistance to the department’s Smoke Management Program. The state forester appoints three members: an industrial forestland owner representative, a non-industrial forestland owner representative and a public representative. A U.S. Forest Service representative and a U.S. Bureau of Land Management representative are also invited to serve as members. Each member serves a two-year term, renewable after the two-year period.
Committee members gather for public meetings in Salem twice a year to discuss and provide advice to the Smoke Management Program regarding current prescribed burning and smoke intrusion trends, program fund balance, implementation plan items and other current issues and projects.
State Forest Advisory Committee
The committee includes interested citizens and representatives of forest industry, environmental and recreation groups. It provides a forum to discuss issues, opportunities and concerns regarding state forestlands and offers advice and guidance to ODF on the implementation of the Northwest Oregon State Forests Management Plan. The plan provides guidance for managing 650,000 acres within the Tillamook, Clatsop and Santiam state forests, and several state-owned forest tracts in Benton, Polk, Lincoln, Clackamas and Lane counties.