Author: healthyforests

A recent Oregonian article on the plight of rural Oregon provides yet another call for our Congressional delegation to move quickly on a real plan to restore the health of our rural communities and federal forests through legislation that assures

The National Education Association, representing three million educators across America, urged U.S. House members to approve the “Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act” to restore economic opportunities and education funding in rural communities. Here’s what they had to say:

In 2012, wildfires burned 9.3 million acres, while the U.S. Forest Service harvested approximately 200,000 acres. This means that 44 times as many acres burned as were responsibly harvested and restored. According to the U.S. Forest Service, 65-82 million acres

The La Grande Observer recently published the following commentary by BoiseCascade’s Lindsay Warness and Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities’ Nick Smith: Oregon’s public forests are a public treasure from which many people derive pleasure, solace, and a living.  Forestlands in Oregon

Evelyn Badger-Nores is the executive director at Douglas C.A.R.E.S., a child abuse response and evaluation service provider based in Roseburg (The views in this column are hers alone.). In this column, Ms. Badger-Nores says a lack of jobs and economic

Commissioner Chris Brong explains why federal government should allow forest-dependent Skamania County a freer hand in the use of its resources: SKAMANIA County is the most environmentally “protected” county in the West. But at what cost? Our unemployment rate is 11.5

Here’s Jennifer Phillippi’s response to a radical activist who recently attacked her family over the recent closure of their Rough & Ready sawmill, the last in Josephine County. This piece originally appeared in the Grants Pass Daily Courier: Andy Kerr’s May

In a letter to federal land managers, Oregon Congressman Greg Walden urges the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to recognize forest management as a solution for preventing catastrophic wildfires and combatting rural poverty. Here’s an excerpt of

Watch County Commissioner Simon Hare discuss how active forest management can help restore more economic opportunity for rural communities.

In Washington D.C. the growing debate over reforming federal forest policies is focused on improving forest health and providing a short-term extension of timber payments to county governments.  These issues are important, but the primary goal of any federal forest