Taking a closer look at timber harvesting
Most Oregonians are familiar with timber harvesting. We see log trucks going to mills to produce forest products we use in our daily lives. Many of us realize that timber harvest is important to Oregon. It sustains jobs that are important to our rural communities.
However, fewer people know why and how timber is harvested on different forest types and different ownerships.
OFRI’s latest special report, Not So Clear-Cut, sheds light on why timber harvests vary in Oregon. The report documents how different forest owners have different management objectives and how forests and tree species growing in different parts of the state respond to management differently. Among the timber harvest methods the report discusses are clearcutting on industrial forestland in western Oregon, restoration thinning on a national forest in central Oregon and variable-retention harvest on Bureau of Land Management land in southwest Oregon.
The new report also highlights the forest laws that govern timber harvests in the state and the role of forest certification systems in documenting the sustainability of timber harvesting.
To accompany the report, OFRI produced three new short videos that offer insight on different timber harvest methods:
Enjoy these new resources and please share them with others. Oregon is one of the best places in the world for growing trees to produce timber for wood products, and fortunately there are a range of options available to meet landowner objectives.
For the forest,
Mike Cloughesy
Director of Forestry