December 24, 2025
Chair Kelly
Oregon Board of Forestry – State Forest Division
2600 State St
Salem, Or 97310
Public Comment to Oregon Board of Forestry on the Forest Management Plan
Dear Chair Kelly, Interim State Forester Kate Skinner, Members of Oregon Board of Forestry
MCAT has been advocating with the Board for many years now the need to practice climate smart forestry and to finally implement the Climate Change Carbon Plan that for too long has simply been ignored. Climate smart forestry optimizes carbon sequestration, storage and resilience while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. Practices include growing trees longer,
protecting mature and old growth trees and maintaining a diversity of species, ages and structures. Sadly, the FMP does not achieve the aim of climate smart forestry and ignores the Climate Change Carbon Plan. This Plan needs to be applied across all of ODF.
We urge you to protect our legacy forests and stop clearcutting on state forest lands. The FMP does not ensure that our state forests are providing the Greatest Permanent Value as clearly the climate crisis the state faces demands that we increase carbon sequestration and storage. In fact, we now have the opportunity to change ODF’s revenue model by following in the footsteps of the Elliott Forest and engaging with carbon markets. We can thus achieve a win/win by growing our trees longer and generating revenue.
A number of other ecosystem services are achieved by practicing climate smart forestry including meeting the needs of endangered and threatened species. The FMP needs to ensure that fish and wildlife can thrive. Though the HCP has been a step in the right direction, the proposed plan fails that test. A business as usual approach with clearcutting of mature forests not ecological forestry. We need to both manage across multiple landscapes while also practicing biodiversity conservation.
All future practices must use the best available science. Stop prioritizing logging over all other needs. Importantly the FMP needs to be designed to ensure that a minimum of 30% of our state forests are complex layered forest stands. One of the tragedies of the proposed FMP is that it will further degrade our watersheds. Instead, we need to ensure practices that restore water quality to the levels needed for salmon and other aquatic species.
Our forests on the wetter west side of the state are among the most carbon dense in the world and yet the FMP simply ignores this extraordinary capacity and takes us in the opposite direction with where we need to go. We can do better. The CCCP suggested that Oregon could be a model for other states in practicing climate smart forestry, yet we essentially are continuing to practice forestry as if nothing has changed over the past 50 years. We can learn from our mistakes. Change is hard and often challenging, yet the times call for change. Our hope is that the new State Forester will recognize that one of the most critical things needed done in ODF is to change the culture from one that is focused on timber production to one that practices authentic climate smart forestry. Do the right thing and let our forests become the elders we look up to.
Sincerely,
Rand Schenck
MCAT Forestry and Natural Lands Lead