In this episode, Katie Murray, Executive Director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter (OFS) returns to the podcast, but this time to host a conversation with Isabella Nelson, recent graduate from Oregon State University (OSU) with an honors bachelor of science degree in environmental chemistry and a minor in toxicology, and Dr. Kim Anderson, professor from the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at OSU. They discuss Isabella’s internship project with OFS which highlights how the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s flawed data analysis and misuse of environmental monitoring results can lead to inaccurate and warped conclusions. Isabella discusses her scientifically accurate analysis of data produced by the Pesticide Stewardship Partnership, a decades old program designed as a targeted, voluntary effort to identify local water quality issues and support education for pesticide applicators. The podcast explores how DEQ began using the program’s data inappropriately to make broad regional conclusions that inflate concerns over pesticide use and undermine trust. Isabella and Kim provide recommendations to refocus the program by applying sound science, improving data transparency and ensuring environmental policies are based on accurate, meaningful analysis that truly benefits both water quality and communities as the program as intended.

In this episode we interview Chris Evans, president of Oregon's newest mass timber manufacturer, TimberLab, who played a major role in the new mass timber ceiling at the Portland International Airport (PDX). We talk about everything from what mass timber is, the history of using large wood in construction, the construction speed advantage of wood buildings that utilize cross laminated timber, mass plywood or other mass timber, the environmental benefits, challenges to larger scale adoption and what policymakers can do to advance this emerging technology. For more information on mass timber, visit the Oregon Forest Resources Institute's page on mass timber or visit ThinkWood.

This episode with Sara Duncan, Director of Communications for the Oregon Forest Industries Council, takes on the top six myths about the timber industry, including:

1. Tree farms are not forests, and the timber industry only plants a monoculture of Douglas-fir.

2. Clearcuts are unnecessary, you could just thin forests instead.

3. Logging is the number one source of carbon emissions in Oregon and older trees sequester more carbon than young trees.

4. The timber industry cuts down trees for toilet paper.

5. All timber companies in Oregon are owned by out-of-state, wall street investors like TIMOs and REITs.

6. The listing of the spotted own didn't cause as many job losses as the industry said, it was actually automation.

In this episode, Senator Elizabeth Steiner, Senate co-chair of the full Ways and Means Committee in the Oregon Legislature, discusses a work group she convened that OFIC's Kyle Williams participated in after the end of the 2023 legislative session. The work group was tasked with exploring ways to address Oregon's wildfire funding crisis that has been building for years, and resulted in a concept that will be put forward as a bill (House Bill 4133) under consideration in the upcoming 2024 legislative session. Sen. Steiner and Kyle discuss the elements that led to formation of the work group, who participated and why, how they developed ideas, and the details of the proposal (including one element that will not move forward). Toward the end of the episode, Sen. Steiner also addresses the incomplete reporting about the workgroup by the media.

Two short clips (part 1, part 2) can be found on our YouTube channel.

Table of Contents

Background

4:23 – 13:33 The history (and context) that lead to creation

13:34 – 16:03 Where fires are starting and where acres are

16:04 – 21:04 What happened at the end of the 2023 session

21:05 – 23:40 Why have conversations on wildfire funding

23:41 – 29:44 How the workgroup came together, who was

29:45 – 33:56 Why weren’t there more people involved in the

33:57 – 45:52 How the proposal came together, the three

The proposal

45:53 – 50:24 One piece of the proposal that isn’t moving

50:25 – The pieces of the proposal that are moving forward

56:14 – 59:04 What the $10/tax account wasn’t paying for and

59:05 – 1:00:20 The primary driver that will reduce

Responding to media coverage

1:00:21 – 1:03:25 Did Sen. Steiner do this for political

1:03:26 – 1:08:09 Did contributions to Sen. Steiner’s PAC

1:08:10 – 1:15:10 Does this proposal shift the financial

1:15:11- 1:17:28 How does wildfire funding in Oregon compare

1:17:29 – 1:20:56 Did one company “write the proposal”/did

1:20:57 – 1:23:15 Sen. Steiner’s experience with two

1:23:16 – 1:25:11 Concluding remarks/what’s next.

This episode with Katie Murray, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, and Seth Barnes, director of forest policy for

This episode with Dr. Tom DeLuca, dean of the Oregon State

This episode with Jim Paul, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, discusses the institute’s three primary program areas (public education, K-12 education, and landowner education), as well as how OFRI is funded, the institute’s response to former Governor Kate Brown's request for a 2021 audit by Oregon Secretary of State Shamia Fagan, and implications of a bill in the 2023 Oregon legislative session.  

As a follow-up to our two previous episodes that focused on the history of state forest lands in Oregon and the state’s pursuit of a Habitat Conservation Plan, this episode discusses the recent terms agreed to by the state to settle a lawsuit filed by environmental organizations over alleged impact the state’s forest management activities have to coho salmon habitat. The episode also includes a minor correction to statements made in the first episode on this topic (Are

This is the second in a two-part series on Oregon’s state forests, including the current controversy surrounding the Department of Forestry’s pursuit of a Habitat Conservation Plan for western Oregon state forests, the plan’s failure to provide adequate projected timber harvest levels to keep the Department of Forestry’s budget afloat for the next 70 years, and the mounting pressure on the Board of Forestry to change course.

This is the first in a two-part series about Oregon’s state forests, including the history of how the state acquired over 600,000 acres of forest from 15 forest trust land counties in the 1930s and 1940s, the progression of management approaches and issues on those forests over the last seven decades, and what lead the state to pursue a Habitat Conservation Plan for western Oregon state forests that aims to both protect threatened and endangered species like the northern spotted owl and coho salmon and increase financial stability for the Department.

** please note: there is a minor correction to this episode in Are We Putting the Forest to Sleep? An update: Coho lawsuit and a minor correction