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| Dear OSWA Member,
The Legislature plans to wrap up
its special session by the end of this week. There are
still a number of bills in play; however, none that directly
threaten our ability to manage forestland.
The Legislature will finish its work on
balancing the budget this week. As some of you may have read in
the papers over the weekend, the Legislature plans to sweep a number of
agency accounts that have positive cash account balances, as well as cut
some spending to achieve a balanced budget. At this point, the
Oregon Department of Forestry's budget will not be affected. |
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| SJR 41 - This measure would be referred
to the voters to amend the Constitution to provide for annual
legislative sessions. It passed the Senate
on a vote of 24 to 6. Those voting against the measure were:
Boquist, Ferrioli, George, Girod, Kruse, and Whitsett. The measure
is being considered by the House and is expected to pass this
week. The rumor in the Capitol is that Senate President Peter
Courtney is holding up some House passed measures in the Senate until
the House passes this measure.
SCR 19 - This resolution when passed will
adjourn the special session of Seventy-fifth Legislative Assembly.
Our lobbyist Roger Beyer suggested in the halls of the Capitol last
week that he could get at least 150 other lobbyists to support
immediate passage of this resolution so the session could be brought to
an immediate close! However, it is not expected that a vote will
come until Friday to adjourn the special session. |
ODF
Salem Staff Changes
Peter Daugherty,
deputy chief of the Oregon Department of Forestry's Private Forests
Division, provided this update on transitions within the Private Forests
Division last week.
Lanny Quackenbush has left
ODF to join Department of State Lands (DLS) as their Eastern Region
Manager working out of the Bend office. While I would like to blame
years of hearing "what's good for Eastern Oregon is good for the state"
at EOA stewardship conferences for the move, the fact is that DSL
offered Lanny a permanent position, something the Program did not. Lanny
had a great deal of expertise that will be sorely missed and his
departure has left the Program with a number of holes to fill.
Lorene
Judge has joined the Private Forests Program and the ODF Partnership
Development Program as the Budget and Fiscal Manager. Lorene comes to
the Program with a wealth of budget and fiscal management skills, and
will provide leadership and management of the budgets for both programs.
She will serve as liaison to Private Forests Program for grant
planning, application, and implementation of selected grants
administered by the Partnership Development Program. Lorene will also
manage planning and budgeting activities of the Private Forests Program;
supervise the Forest Health Management unit, and carry out special
projects to achieve Program and Department goals.
We have
also just learned that Susan Shaw (Salem Compliance Audit Specialist)
will be leaving the agency to join Weyerhaeuser at their Albany
office. We will miss Susan, but we are happy for her to be
practicing again in the geotechnical field. Fortunately, she will
not be going far and we are sure to continue to benefit from her
expertise as a partner and stakeholder. Her last day will be
February 26 - stay tuned for an invitation for a goodbye lunch.
Workload
Adjustments, Shifted Duties, and New Approaches
Forests
Health Management
As mentioned above, Lorene Judge will manage
the Forests Health Management (Insect and Disease) unit. While she has
the necessary management experience, she has quite a learning curve on
the technical side of the (e.g., SOD is not something you put in your
front yard). To facilitate the transition, I have asked Rob Flowers to
take the lead on policy and technical issues for the I & D unit. One
task he is working on already is coordinating current and future bark
beetle grant work. He has been contacting stewardship foresters to
discuss the status of current grants and need for future cost-share
work.
On the Sudden Oak Death (SOD) front, the Program is
creating a SOD field unit in Brookings, which will report to Jim Young
at the Coos District office. The department received $2.7 million in
ARRA funds for SOD eradication and host removal. The SOD program has
grown sufficiently to warrant a limited duration Forest Manager 1
position to direct the fieldwork. We will be recruiting for this
position as soon as possible. We expect to add additional limited
duration positions to do field verification of infections, eradication
and host-removal treatment layouts, contract administration, etc.
Enforcement
and Civil Penalties
Marganne Allen will take on Lanny's
role as Civil Penalty Administrator and has the authority to approve
consent orders, but will work with Districts to support solutions
developed in District Reviews. We will continue to follow the
interim process outlined in prior Transition updates, but the Program
will focus on eliminating all but necessary steps in the civil penalties
process. We still have the short-term objective of moving quickly and
efficiently to process new and close out existing high-priority
cases. Marganne will make arrangements to provide Districts with a
list of cases and their status and from which priorities will be
established. The longer-term objective is to identify procedures
and tools that would streamline and improve the civil penalties process
while maintaining the objective of making positive changes in the
resource protection behavior of the person cited.
Safe
Harbor, Stewardship Agreements, and the Healthy Forest Reserve Program
Lanny
was also leading the Program effort (with US Fish and Wildlife) on
developing a programmatic Safe Harbor Agreement (SHA) for Northern
Spotted Owls. When used in conjunction with a Stewardship
Agreement, the SHA can provide regulatory certainty for
landowners. ODF and USFWS collaborated with Natural Resource
Conservation Service (NRCS) to link the SHA with their Healthy Forest
Reserve Program (HFRP), which provides payment to landowners
for spotted owl habitat. With the concurrence of Link Smith and Dave
Lorenz at ODF's West Lane District in Veneta, Paul Clements has agreed
to step up to complete this work. In addition to finishing the work on
Stewardship Agreements and developing practices associated with the
HFRP, Paul will be drafting an agency directive and procedures on the
use of Stewardship Agreements. Paul will also use the work with NRCS to
develop concepts and procedures on how the department can work
effectively with NRCS. Paul will continue to work out of the West
Lane office. Salem will provide technical assistance as needed and
the District will provide supervision for this developmental
opportunity.
New Approaches
With
the reduction of Salem technical staff, the Program needs to rely on
field expertise to complete some of its policy and procedures work and
to explore new ways of business. This approach has the added benefit of
better connecting Salem and the Field.
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Thank you for reading OSWA's Legislative
Update. Please pass this email on to others that may be interested
in legislative news and information. Your comments and
suggestions are always welcome.
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Sincerely,
David Ford
Executive Director
Oregon Small Woodlands Association |
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