Replanting (and much more) - Is Oregon Law

RENEWABLE RESOURCE – A private working forest in the Oregon Coast Range shows a mosaic of diverse age classes and species.

The Oregon Forest Practices Act has been the law since 1971, and it governs forestry practices on the state’s private working forestlands. In Oregon’s forests, about 20 percent are large private forestlands – known also as industrial forestlands – and about 14 percent are in small private forestlands, sometimes called family forestlands.

About 60 percent of Oregon forestlands are federally owned and are managed under federal regulation.

On private lands, the OFPA requires replanting after harvest and leaving down logs, standing snags or live trees for wildlife habitat, as well as buffered areas along streams.

But that’s just the beginning of it. The OFPA has 288 enforceable rules in several categories.

OFRI has just completed a new report, website and video series that describe the OFPA and its importance to Oregon forestry.

Rules to Live By: Oregon Forest Practices – Achieving a Sustainable Balance through Law, Science and Collaboration is a new OFRI special report that summarizes the history and requirements of the OFPA through the eyes of those who use the forest and products from the forest, those who develop and enforce the regulations, and those who lead research and monitoring to measure the effectiveness of the rules. Rules to Live By is available at no charge and can be downloaded at the new website: OregonForestLaws.org or ordered at OFRI’s main website: OregonForests.org

OregonForestLaws.org is a new OFRI website dedicated to the Oregon Forest Practices Act. The website features a homepage and pages on each of nine topics: Introduction, Drinking Water, Reforestation, Clearcutting, Fish Habitat, Wildlife Habitat, Forest Roads, Visual Management and Chemical Application. Each page contains a shorter version of the information in Rules to Live By and a link to a short video on that topic. Each page also contains links to download Rules to Live By and the Forest Laws Timeline. The Timeline is a one-pager that illustrates the history of the OFPA, showing some of the 30-plus changes since its 1971 passage and a few of the studies that have informed us of its effectiveness. 

A Day in the Woods... is the series title of a new collection of videos explaining the OFPA. Featuring Nicole Strong of OSU Forestry and Natural Resources Extension and me, these brief videos show real examples of what is covered in each aspect of the OFPA. Each of these videos is about two minutes in length. They are posted on the OFRI websites as well as on one of our YouTube channels. They can be easily shared by social media including Facebook, Twitter and Google Groups with icons on OregonForestLaws.org. The YouTube versions of the videos can also be accessed through icons here to make sharing by e-mail convenient.

I hope you find these new resources useful – and, as always, let us know if you have questions.

For the Forest,
Mike Cloughesy
Director of Forestry

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9755 SW Barnes Rd., Suite 210        
Portland, OR 97225        
Phone: 971-673-2944        
Fax: 971-673-2946

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