FÊÙÝã Aã®ÊÄ P½Ä Sun Pass State Forest Oregon Department of Forestry May 2021 State Forester’s Message “A strange and challenging year” is how I characterize 2020, a year filled with dramatic and unprecedented events that launches us into the decade covered by this Forest Action Plan. The year began with high hopes that recommendations from the Governor’s Council on Wildfire Response, convened by Governor Brown in 2019, would be acted on at the Legislature’s special session in January. While the session ended with no action being taken on the package, the Governor’s recommended budget for 2021‐23 proposes funding those recommendations. By March, the global pandemic of COVID‐19 had reached Oregon, prompting the Governor to issue stay‐at‐home orders to try to quell rising case numbers. All state employees who could were ordered to work from home. Staff quickly moved public meetings and hearings to virtual platforms, as well as our trainings and staff meetings. Our staff supported development of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s COVID‐19 prevention and management guidance during wildland fire operations. Thankfully, strict adherence to protocols ensured that there were only six documented cases of COVID‐19 in fire camps in the state, despite thousands of firefighters being engaged on Oregon wildfires during what became a historically devastating wildfire season. Some of the protocols may become permanent recommendations, helping make fire camps healthier places in the future. Fast, dry winds fanned dozens of wildfires on Labor Day, which consumed over a million acres in a matter of days. Five of these fires became megafires, burning over 100,000 acres each. ODF participated in an all‐lands approach to wildfire suppression, dispatching all three of our incident management teams and bringing in resources from other states and Canada. The destruction was unprecedented, burning four times the amount of forestland as the 20th century’s worst fire – the first Tillamook Burn in 1933. Sadly, nine civilians died and over 4,000 residences and 1,000 other structures were destroyed. More than half the burned area – about 540,000 acres – was on land protected by ODF, marking 2020 as the worst year ever for acres of ODF‐protected land burned by wildfire. More than 16,000 acres of our 47,000‐acre Santiam State Forest was also burned. ODF is fully engaged in recovery efforts, and has outlined a recovery plan to help regrow damaged parts of the Santiam State Forest and rebuild roads and recreational facilities. The Private Forests Division is responding to private landowners’ need to do restoration logging and has enlisted help from other state agencies to review and process alternative harvest plans. ODF is playing an active role in the Governor’s Disaster Cabinet, with ODF representatives serving on the Natural and Cultural Resource Recovery Task Force to help coordinate post‐wildfire response and restoration. This work will be ongoing in the first years of this Forest Action Plan. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial justice became even more urgent priorities for me and our leadership team as much of the country responded to the deaths of George Floyd and other African Americans in encounters with police. As example of our efforts, ODF ran a series of social media posts aimed at better understanding the concerns people of color face when attempting to enjoy the outdoors or work in a nature‐based field. ODF and nine indigenous nations collaborated to educate firefighters on the importance of protecting cultural sites during wildfires. I am pleased to see the Governor’s proposed 2021‐23 budget would give ODF two new full‐time positions to help our agency achieve our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. When the Legislature met in special session again in June, they passed Senate Bill 1602, which provided for wider buffers around streams, schools, homes, and domestic water intake points during helicopter spray operations. The Governor also arranged for representatives of large industrial timberland owners and environmentalists to meet to try and reach agreement on future forest protections, leading to a statewide Habitat Conservation Plan. Day’s Creek Fire ‐ July 2020 We locked in long‐term environmental protections exceeding the Oregon Forest Practices Act for 30,000 acres of land in Clackamas County held by the family‐owned Port Blakely Tree Farm. The voluntary stewardship agreement, which also provided regulatory certainty to Port Blakely’s forest managers, was the largest agreement to‐date between a timber company and ODF. Oregon Forest Acon Plan Our State Forests Division restructured staffing and operations to ensure the highest and best use of limited personnel and resources, and also redesigned its recreation and educational programs to make them more sustainable, equitable and responsive to recreation needs. Oregon Governor Kate Brown has made climate change mitigation a priority for the state. Her Executive Order No. 20‐04 directs state agencies to take actions to reduce and regulate greenhouse gas emissions. ODF’s Board has been clear in prioritizing response to climate change as a fundamental principle guiding our actions. In response, we are developing a Climate Change Plan. In line with the plan’s vision and principles, staff and leadership have outlined eight initial areas of focus for forestry climate action goals. These range from silviculture and State Forest management to fire response and urban forestry. Sitka Spruce on Oregon Coast ODF has also worked with the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, and stakeholders to produce the Forest Ecosystem Carbon Report. The report quantifies how much carbon is currently sequestered and stored in Oregon’s forests, and will help guide forest management for the next decade and beyond as a tool for carbon sequestration. Our Forest Legacy Program successfully facilitated the acquisition of nearly 1,800 privately owned acres at Wallowa Lake, conserving the unique East Moraine by placing it in public hands, with a future community forest envisioned on part of the property. Thanks to Congress passing the Great American Outdoors Act, the national Land and Water Conservation Fund will now be fully funded. Oregon will now have even more opportunities to build on the successful Forest Legacy program, which conserves forestlands at risk of development. In August of 2019 the State of Oregon through ODF and the USDA Forest Service entered into a Shared Stewardship Agreement to formalize collaboration toward mutual benefit and interests at a statewide scale, using all available tools. ODF is gaining momentum for forest restoration projects under the Good Neighbor Authority (GNA). GNA is applied through ODF’s Federal Forest Restoration Program (FFR), which has been active since 2016. FFR district coordinators work with local staff to develop projects that benefit state, federal and private forestlands across a wider landscape than any one agency could accomplish alone. Similarly, ODF is a partner in Joint Chiefs projects between the state, USDA Forest Service, and Natural Resources Conservation Service that seek to reduce barriers to landowners for forest management planning and cost share. On state forests in western Oregon, the State Forests Division is exploring a potential Habitat Conservation Plan as an opportunity to provide a more holistic and cost‐effective way to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), while managing state forests in western Oregon for economic, environmental and social benefits. The proposed plan would cover about 640,000 acres of ODF‐managed land west of the Cascades. It would include conservation strategies for current and likely‐to‐be‐listed species under the ESA, such as the Northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, and Oregon Coast and Lower Columbia River coho salmon. If an HCP emerges from the public process and is approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, ODF would be assured of ESA compliance for 70 years, so long as the terms of the HCP are followed. This assurance would create more certainty in harvest levels, continue to generate revenue to support public services in rural communities, and provide protections for covered species for at least the next seven decades. Gilchrist State Forest May 2021 Execuve Summary Oregon’s Forest Action Plan builds upon the plan developed in 2010, and the 2015 revision. As is evident through the State Forester’s message, this plan emerges in a period of unprecedented challenges for forest managers. This plan reflects an effort to identify the main threats anticipated over the next 10 years. It then seeks opportunities to address those identified threats through sound strategies prioritizing available resources so that they can be applied with the most impact. Oregon’s Forest Action Plan is comprised of this narrative, a table of strategies and programs that align to the USDA Forest Service National Themes and Priorities, and an assessment of Oregon’s forestland trends, opportunities, and threats. Accompanying documents to this narrative are: A statewide forest resource assessment, in which subject matter experts explored conditions and trends of forest resources in the state, identified threats to forestlands, and identified regions of the state that are a priority. Oregon’s programs and key strategies were put into a programmatic strategy matrix, which aligns with the National Priorities for the USDA FS State and Private Forestry (S&PF) program. This section of the action plan embraces a Shared Stewardship approach. Programs, resources, and funding are identified by programs and sources so that they can be strategically applied to achieve greater impacts across Oregon’s forestlands. Oregon’s Forestland Oregon’s forests cover approximately 30 million acres and consist of federal (60%), private (35%), state (3%), tribal (1%), and other public (1%) ownerships. As the nation’s top softwood timber producer, Oregon’s forests produce 18% of America’s softwood lumber, about 5.2 billion board feet per year.