[ODF_Private_Forests] Private Forests Transition Update - February 18, 2010

[WEEKS Kevin]

Private Forests News list members -

Peter Daugherty, deputy chief of the Oregon Department of Forestry's Private Forests Division, provided this update on transitions within the Private Forests Division on Thursday.

Kevin Weeks
ODF Agency Affairs Office
(503) 945-7427

From: DAUGHERTY Peter
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010


Statewide Stewardship Conference

Salem will be hosting a Statewide Stewardship Forester Conference near Salem in the second week of April (6, 7, and 8th). Please mark your calendars for this meeting.  We will be drafting an agenda and sending out meeting location and logistics shortly.

Salem Staff Changes

Lanny Quackenbush has left ODF to join Department of State Lands 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.


Peter Daugherty
Deputy Chief, Private Forests Division
Oregon Department of Forestry
2600 State Street
Salem, OR 97310
Office (503) 945-7482


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