Press Releases

Today, the American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) and Eastern Oregon Counties Association filed an opposition brief in a federal lawsuit seeking to vacate the U.S. Forest Service’s “Eastside Screens” Amendment that improves the agency’s ability to reduce wildfire risks and restore forest health on national forests in eastern Oregon and...

The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks today held a hearing on SB 5254, a bipartisan bill to ensure transparency, accountability and public involvement in the leasing of state trust lands managed by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR). What does the bill do? SB 5254...

An effort to reduce wildfire risks on the Los Padres National Forest and protect nearby communities can proceed after U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Phillips today ruled in favor of the U.S. Forest Service’s Tecuya Ridge Shaded Fuelbreak Project above Frazier Park, Calif. The Tecuya Project has been tied up...

Under the guise of “protecting” mature and old growth forests, several anti-forestry groups today are holding a rally in downtown Portland to pressure the Biden Administration and the U.S. Forest Service to issue new regulations restricting active forest management on overstocked and fire-prone national forests in Oregon and throughout the...

The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is rushing to approve a project to lease state trust lands to a private interest without conducting a thorough environmental review, and the agency is failing to consider the project’s impacts on funding for schools and other public services as required by the...

After organizing a kayak “flotilla” to protest the Willamette National Forest’s Flat Country project, anti-forestry activists continue to make false and misleading statements about the project. Here are the facts: The Flat Country would implement roughly 950 acres of regeneration harvest as well as over 1,500 acres of thinning- not...

The American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) and the Eastern Oregon Counties Association (EOCA) have moved to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s “Eastside Screens” Amendment that affects forest management on six national forests in Eastern Oregon, including the Malheur, Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, Deschutes, Ochoco, and Fremont-Winema. In...

Beneficiaries of Washington state trust lands urged the Board of Natural Resources (BNR) to follow the State Supreme Court’s opinion in Conservation Northwest v. Commissioner of Public Lands and meet its obligations to continue managing these working forests to fund critical public services. Representatives of the beneficiary community sent a...

As of this writing, the Rum Creek Fire in southwest Oregon has burned nearly 12,000 acres along the iconic Rogue River northwest of Grants Pass.  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has declared an emergency as “Level 3 – Go Now” evacuations are in place for homes near the rural communities of...

On July 21, 2022, the Washington State Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Conservation Northwest v. Franz affirming the trust mandate that applies to Department of Natural Resources (DNR) state trust lands. This is a major legal victory for DNR, public schools, counties, and many other community service providers,...

The American Forest Resource Council today joined beneficiaries of Washington state trust lands in applauding the Washington State Supreme Court’s opinion in Conservation Northwest v. Hilary Franz, a case where Conservation Northwest attempted to undermine the Washington Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) fiduciary duty to manage these working forests, known...

  AFRC has the following to say regarding a report by the “Climate Forests Campaign,” an anti-forestry effort to halt forest management throughout the nation: Old and mature trees are not “worth more standing” if they are dead and emitting carbon. This “report” by anti-forestry lobbyists was released at the...

By Travis Joseph, AFRC President The Forest Service and BLM timber sale programs are essential to preserving and growing the physical and human forest infrastructure that is not only critical to providing carbon-friendly wood products to meet society’s needs but is essential to helping the Forest Service and BLM accomplish...

The American Forest Resource Council had the following to say regarding U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s memorandum directing the U.S. Forest Service to take “bold actions to restore forests, improve resilience, and address the climate crisis.” “Wildfires are converting overstocked federal forests in the West from carbon sinks to...

American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) President Travis Joseph had the following to say regarding the Washington Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) ‘carbon project’ on public working forests known as state trust lands: “DNR should follow the recommendations of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the best way to...