Oregon Sustainable Forest Management Indicators

1. Oregon Sustainable Forest Management Indicators Better Data – Better Dialogue – Better Decisions

2. What we will cover . . . • Key Forestry Program for Oregon concepts • Sustainable forest management indicator development

3. The Oregon Board of Forestry is directed by the Oregon Legislature to... • Supervise all matters of forest policy within Oregon • Appoint the State Forester • Adopt rules regulating forest practices • Provide general supervision of the State Forester's duties in managing the Oregon Department of Forestry.

4. The Forestry Program for Oregon • Strategic forest policy statement of the board • Built upon monitoring data, science, resource assessments, and public processes • 1977, 82: sustainable timber supply • 1990: sustaining multiple values • 1995: landscape perspective • 2003: sustainable forest management

5. Forest Policymaking and Implementation are Difficult! • Conflicting values • Social values hard to define • Serious discrepancy between social values as measured by public opinion vs behavior • Conflicting interests • Some have an interest in maintaining conflict (“paid gladiators”) • Conflicting science • Scientific uncertainty; • Difficulty in achieving consensus • Scientists advocating a policy choice based upon their view of the world.

6. Extreme ideologies are not constructive Nature knows best Markets know best Government knows best Locals know best Scientists know best Common Ground The law is clear I know best

7. Oregonians Prefer “Balanced” Forest Management on Public and Private Lands Balance For Federal Forestlands Balance For Private Forestlands Protection of water quality and wildlife habitat 41% Protection of water quality and wildlife habitat 40% Meeting a wide range of social needs 32% Meeting a wide range of social needs 29% Growing forests for products people use29% Growing forests for products people use30% Davis, Hibbitts, and McCaig, 2001

8. Collaboration and respect are constructive Learn, work with nature Governments set standards Markets are means Common Ground Science informs choices Locals know a lot Everyone has ideas Laws give direction

9. Sustainability is a Unifying Theme that Resonates with the Public “Sustainable forest management” means . . . Forest resources are used, developed, and protected at a rate and in a manner that enables people to meet their current environmental, economic, and social needs, and also provides that future generations can meet their own needs (based on ORS 184.421)

10. How does one attain sustainability? • The BOF will promote a public dialogue with Oregonians in determining how to sustainably manage forestlands in Oregon for current and future generations… • Requires a balance among the environmental, economic and social values provided by our forests. • There is no formula, Oregonians must define what balance works for us!

11. Sustainability is a journey, not a destination “Decision-making comes to be understood for what it has always been, finding our way through partially undiscovered country rather than charting a scientifically determined course to a known end point. “Sustainability is about maintaining the well-being of the combined ecological[—economical]—societal system. This requires that its self organizing processes and structures be maintained. This will happen naturally if we maintain the context for self organization in ecological systems, which in turn will maintain context for continued well-being of [economic and] societal systems” --Kay, Boyle, and Pond, 2001.

12. Sustainability is not a unique target • There must be a range of acceptable routes to sustainability • The actual route taken is ultimately a political decision • The outer bounds of sustainability are long-term policy considerations • Choices on the preferable course of action are shorter-term • We often confuse the two • Don’t try to address simultaneously Environmental Economic Short-term sustainable course of action Long-term outer bounds of sustainability Unsustainable course of action Social

13. Nature emphasis forests – Parks, wilderness, wild areas Mostly federal lands, some state, tribal and private Production emphasis forests Mostly forest industry, some state, tribal, family Multiple-use emphasisforests Mostly state, tribal, some family, some federal Social Benefits Economic Benefits Sustainability Environmental Benefits Residential value emphasis forests Forests where people live

14. Forestry Program for Oregon Strategies: Strategy A: Promote a sound legal system, effective and adequately funded government, leading-edge research, and sound economic policies.Strategy B: Ensure that Oregon's forests provide diverse social and economic outputs and benefits valued by the public in a fair, balanced, and efficient manner.Strategy C: Maintain and enhance the productive capacity of Oregon's forests to improve the economic well-being of Oregon's communities.Strategy D: Protect, maintain, and enhance the soil and water resources of Oregon's forests.Strategy E: Contribute to the conservation of diverse native plant and animal populations and their habitats in Oregon's forests.Strategy F: Protect, maintain, and enhance the health of Oregon's forest ecosystems, watersheds, and airsheds within a context of natural disturbance and active management.Strategy G: Enhance carbon storage in Oregon's forests and forest products.

15. Oregonians’ Ranking of Strategies Used in the 2003 Forestry Program for Oregon FPFO Strategy D C F A E F G Davis, Hibbitts & McCaig

17. Sustainable Forest Management Indicator Advisory Committee Charge: • Recommend sustainable forest management indicators to the Board of Forestry • Solicit public input on desired future outcomes for the recommended indicators • Recommend desired future outcomes for the indicators to the Board of Forestry • Advise the State Forester on future Forest Assessment Project work

18. Sustainable Forest Management Indicator Advisory Committee • Private landowners • Public land managers • Environmental organizations • Sustainability organizations • State and federal policy makers • Tribal representation • Other state natural resources agencies

19. “Indicators” mean: • Parameters that measure specific quantitative and qualitative attributes and help monitor trends in the sustainability of forest management over time • Methodology, source, format, scale, timing, and units of data must be determined for each indicator

21. Why are Indicators Important? • Shape social understanding of forests and the forces that influence them • Places natural management on par with economic indicators that leaders and the public will understand • A framework to coordinate natural resource inventory, assessment, planning, and coordination • Provide citizens interested in forests with a tool to encourage society to address the needs of forests • Helps to repair hopelessly fragmented administrative landscape

22. Public Discourse Key Indicators Policy Planning and Management Monitoring Data

23. Oregon Benchmarks 20 to 25 Oregon sustainable forest management indicators 67 international indicators evaluated in the 2000 Oregon First Approximation Report and the 2003 and 2009 National Reports on Sustainable Forests

25. Measure progress through the use of indicators • Collect data on a set of sustainable forest management indicators • Large enough to provide the most important information needed to address the seven Forestry Program for Oregon strategies. • Small enough to allow efficient assessment and tradeoff analysis to be completed in a timely fashion for policy analysis. • Form coalitions with other agencies and organizations to create a common language used to communicate about forest conditions and monitor trends over time.

26. Characteristics of good indicators • Relevant • Understandable • Practical and feasible • Measurable • Feasible • Sufficient to the purpose • Sensitive to change • Scale appropriate • Compatible • Scientific merit • Linkable to environmental, economic, and social models, forecasting, and information systems

27. Choosing indicators: • Forestry Program for Oregon strategies clarify priorities/but indicators needed to measure progress and provide a sustainability narrative • Recommend no more than three indicators per strategy • What gets measured gets managed—if you measure the wrong things you will manage the wrong things • Balance subjective and objective measures • Don’t just settle for readily available data— “coming attractions” is OK --based on The Price of Government by Osborne and Hutchinson

28. Oregonians’ Values Meaningful Indicators

29. OFRI, 2002

30. Step 1: What to Measure Step 2: Desired Outcomes for Indicators

31. Montreal Process Soil Indicators • Area and percent of forestland with significant erosion • Area and percent of forestland managed primarily for protective functions (e.g.,Watersheds, Flood Protection, Avalanche Protection, Riparian Zones) • Area and percent of forestland with significantly diminished soil organic matter and/or changes in other soil chemical properties • Area and percent of forest land with significant compaction or change in soil physical properties resulting from human activities • Area and percent of forest land experiencing an accumulation of persistent toxic substances

32. Advisory Committee Discussions • Soils a High Priority Component of Strategy D • Indicator concepts considered: • Ability of soils to grow and retain vegetation • Erosion rates • Susceptibility to erode • Compaction and changes in physical properties • Changes in chemical and biological properties • Organic matter

33. Advisory Committee Discussions • Most interest in soil productivity, erosion, and roads • Road density alone not useful • Landslide difficult to track, episodic • National long-term site productivity work very soil type dependent • Vegetation growth rates may not be a good surrogate for soil productivity • FIA soil data not consistent over time • Difficulty in detecting real changes from sampling variability • Soils “notoriously heterogeneous” across short distances • Bulk density and erosion useful once baselines are established • Soil quality index?? (19 chemical and physical properties) • Agreed to develop and consider roads survey indicator • Soil productivity a developmental indicator concept

34. Draft Indicator: Forest road risks to soil and water resources • Statistical sample of all Oregon forest roads • Systematic on-the-ground surveys • Ten-year cycle; work done through contracted services • Designed to consistently evaluate current conditions and also near-term future road conditions • Metrics: • Percent of road system disconnected from the stream network • Percent of stream crossings on fish streams providing passage • Percent of stream crossings with a low risk of washout • Percent of road system in non-critical or less critical locations • Percent of road system with active landslides or surface erosion • Land area in non-forest condition (road subgrade plus cutslope)

35. Use indicator information for. . . • Forestry Program for Oregon implementation and future revisions • 2010 Forest Assessment Report and Symposium • Foundation for federal land management planning, 2009 National Report, RPA assessment

36. For more information . . . www.oregonforestry.org Follow links to “Sustainable Forestry Indicators”