The Oregon Coast Community Forest (OCCF) is dedicated to the people of Lincoln County through the provision of forest products, clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities. The OCCF will build a growing base of community forestlands managed for economic and ecological values in service to local communities. OCCF’s land management will employ a progressive forestry providing for a diversity of forest products and uses. The governance and management of the OCCF will be based on a transparent, and democratic process.
Through public benefit ownership and governance and the practice of ecologically sustainable forestry, the OCCF will earn the trust of Lincoln County citizens and serve community interests.
Guiding Philosophy:
Historically, the great majority of Lincoln County’s forests have been managed either for broad national interests (Siuslaw National Forest and BLM lands) or narrow commercial purpose. In each case, forest management was well-intentioned, but the needs and interests of Lincoln County’s citizens did not determine the goals of forest management. Simply put, our economy and our values have not come first for the great majority of county forestlands. New understandings in forest science and new economic realities of the coastal economy leads us to believe that a forestry serving the interests of Lincoln County communities is possible and desirable.
The OCCF recognizes the need for long-term forest stewardship. We understand that some forestlands are special and need protection to insure community values, while other forestlands may require restoration to achieve their full productive potential. The OCCF will take conserving approach to forest management with a goal of building inherent value of the forest’s composition and structure while harvesting the excess bounty of growth.
Economic Realities and New Opportunities:
Northwest private forest ownership has become an uncertain business proposition. Large industrial timber companies increasingly buy and sell timberlands within a globally competitive and volatile wood products industry. Dr. John Sessions of the School of Forestry at Oregon State University predicts that 80percent of all Northwest industrial forestlands will change ownership in the current round of industry re-structuring.
In Lincoln County, the large integrated forestland firms of Georgia Pacific and Boise Cascade sold their holdings in recent years. Georgia Pacific lands are now owned by Plum Creek Timberlands and Boise Cascade’s lands are now owned by Forest Capital Partners. Both new firms are specialized forestland managers with different financial management goals. At a time when issues such as watershed health, coastal salmon recovery, and economic vitality are pressing concerns for coastal citizens; the commitment to local economic needs and community values by large forest owners is unclear. Given long-term population trends and an ever-present uncertainty within the wood products industry; Oregon’s coastal forests remain subject to market pressures for short-term management.
In response to environmental and economic concerns, a number of initiatives have begun nationally and regionally to insure that forests provide for economic and ecological values. For example, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2729, which provides local government with the authority to issue tax-exempt bonds on behalf of nonprofit, public interest community forest organizations. Nationally, community forestry is a growing movement with a recognized role in the forest ownership mix.
Given the importance and extent of forestlands in Lincoln County, we believe it is time to build local capacity for forest stewardship through the creation of a Lincoln County-based community forest organization. The new organization is called the Oregon Coast Community Forest. The initial phase of OCCF development is focused on assessing need, exploring opportunities, and developing strategies to build long-term forest stewardship capacity.
What is a community forest and how might it be managed?
The OCCF’s vision is for community owned forestlands to play an important role in the overall mix of forest ownership in Lincoln County. The goals and objectives of a community forest bridge a service gap between government owned public lands and private forestland managed for financial goals. We envision the forestry practiced on OCCF lands to be similar to that of the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Structure Based Management forestry system. Such a forestry blends significant timber production with new understandings in forest science regarding stand diversity and landscape-level ecological processes.
Essential to the success of the OCCF is the development of partnerships with existing Lincoln County forest owners and forest stakeholders. There are many forest management success stories in Lincoln County and each offers important lessons.
An important inspiration for the OCCF comes from Kenya, Africa. Wangari Matthai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, had the notion that planting one tree outside a village would make a difference. Now, 30 million trees later, her Green Belt Movement has spread to other countries across Africa. Wangari Matthai was able to highlight the importance of people in creating democratic space. Her idea was simple: the health and welfare of people is connected to the health and welfare of the land. Here in the Northwest, planting trees is a well-established practice dating from the period following the WWII. Our forest problem, however, is not the failure to replant trees but instead the problem of providing the required forest values where they make the most sense for local communities.
Given the county’s highly productive forests, new forest science knowledge, and many site-specific forest management needs related to communities throughout the county we believe a community forest organization makes sense and has an important role to play. Nationally, community forest ownership and community forestry is one of the most rapidly growing forest movements.
Several types of forestry and land management opportunities are possible through a community forest:
1. Restoration forestry lands focus on building forest capital over time so that the forest becomes more productive for multiple values–including habitat and timber and non-timber forest products.
2. Working forest conservation easements lands are an opportunity for private owners to produce abundance ecological services (clean water, fish habitat, etc.) without bearing the full cost of such values.
3. Watershed value lands are lands managed primarily to protect water quality and supply. Low impact forestry may be practiced on such lands but the management objective is always clean water.
4. Sustainable forest product lands are dedicated to the production of timber and non-timber products through the use of a progressive, ecological forestry.
5. Legacy groves and research lands are managed for their unique ecological values or at the direction of a donor’s wishes. Forest scientists know that such lands often act as islands of high biological diversity that enrich adjacent forestland.
The OCCF Summary
In the past, the forest management opportunities listed above may have appeared as a distant goal. Today, however, forest science, coastal economic trends, and a diverse array of tax and policy tools offer the promise of long-term forest management in support of local social and cultural values. The time to act is now for making the OCCF vision become a reality.
