Take Action
- Provide ORAL TESTIMONY in-person on June 7 in Sisters, Oregon. If you can’t make it to Sisters, please sign up to provide virtual testimony. Click here for instructions for testifying (in-person or virtually).
- Send WRITTEN TESTIMONY to the Board of Forestry at BoardofForestry@oregon.gov. See below for talking points and a draft comment letter.
Please click here and fill out this brief form to let us know how you’d like to show up for state forests, and we’ll reach back out to help make it happen.
Key Talking Points
Click here to view talking points to prepare your testimony/letter. Sample letter also below. Here is a brief summary:
- Support the passage of the State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan Alternative 3. Alternative 3 is a better path for fish and wildlife species, their habitat, and broad conservation values on state-managed public forests to benefit current and future generations of Oregonians.
- Timber interests are claiming that the HCP is a job killer. In fact, according to the Department of Forestry, the HCP would increase timber jobs by at least 10 percent in Clatsop County, and more than 40 percent in Tillamook County.
- Under the HCP annual timber harvests are projected to be higher, as compared with business as usual. This still allows 50% of the forest for preserving habitat and better managing Oregon’s liability under the Endangered Species Act.
Let’s make sure that the HCP’s real story breaks through. Please help us win the day for our state forests and keep this fight alive!
Sample Letter in Support the Western State Forests HCP (Please personalize):
Example subject line: Please support the Western State Forests HCP
Dear Chair Kelly and board members,
I am writing to you to urge you to support a State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan Alternative 3. Alternative 3 would support better habitat protections while allowing more timber and more jobs than the No Action Alternative.
HCP Alternative 3 establishes dedicated stream and forest conservation areas in the Tillamook, Clatsop and other state forests in western Oregon. It improves conservation protections for logging on steep slopes and addresses the impacts of logging roads. Protection of Habitat Conservation Areas and Riparian Conservation Areas for threatened and endangered species also supports sequestering carbon and so would support the Climate Change and Forest Carbon Plan (CCCP) adopted by the Board of Forestry in 2021. At the same time, Alternative 3 would produce more timber, more jobs and more revenue than taking no action (see Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Table 3.12-14).
More than 500,000 people in Northwest Oregon get their drinking water from streams and rivers that flow out of state forest land. We have an obligation to plan for the protection of watersheds, soils and climate now and for future generations. By moving forward with Alternative 3 of the State Forests HCP we move in the right direction.
Thank you for supporting clean water and healthy fish and wildlife habitat
Sincerely,
