SALEM, Ore. – The Oregon Department of Forestry and Seattle-based forest products company Port Blakey recently signed the largest forest stewardship agreement in the state’s history, increasing protections on 30,000 acres of the company’s privately-owned forestland in Clackamas County. The voluntary agreement, which took a year to develop, review, and approve, will enhance protections for water quality and wildlife habitat on Port Blakely’s forest located near Molalla, Oregon.
The agreement incorporates forest management and conservation measures designed to enhance aquatic, riparian and upland habitat. These include additional protection for fish-bearing streams and other bodies of water as well as measures aimed to create and sustain a mosaic of diverse habitats to meet the needs of land-based wildlife species.
In the spirit of volunteerism, a stewardship agreement takes a comprehensive landscape approach to creating and enriching fish and wildlife habitat, through the implementation of specific conservation-focused practices. These practices take into account the many habitat requirements of critical species. Measures outlined in the agreement include leaving more standing wildlife trees and wider stream buffers after harvest, as well as retaining upland habitat patches and legacy features that are relics of past forests. Large woody debris will be placed into small and medium fish-bearing streams to enhance aquatic habitat.
“I am pleased to see the years of collaboration between Port Blakely and the Oregon Department of Forestry come to fruition in this stewardship agreement,” said Oregon State Forester Peter Daugherty. “Port Blakely is leading the way in private forest management practices by voluntarily enhancing habitat and resource protections, while also gaining regulatory certainty to keep their working forest working. This agreement is our largest to date, covering some 30,000 acres.”
Under Oregon’s Forest Practices Act rules, a stewardship agreement is a land management agreement which provides a voluntary alternative to traditional administration mechanisms, while more efficiently implementing the provisions of the Forest Practices Act. The program affords conservation-minded landowners with long-term regulatory certainty in areas where the landowner’s self-imposed practices exceed Oregon’s regulatory requirements designed to protect natural resources, such as water quality and fish and wildlife habitat. Until this point, approximately 13 such agreements have been in place in Oregon. Port Blakely’s agreement covers the largest amount of forestland.
“We are excited to see our vision for this forest come to life and thank our partners at ODF and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as well as the hundreds of stakeholders who engaged with us in this process,” said Court Stanley, President of US Forestry for Port Blakely. “It’s a great example of Port Blakely’s approach to stewardship forestry and our commitment to collaborating to help ensure our forests are managed for economic, environmental and community benefits.”
The Oregon Legislature authorized ODF to enter into such voluntary stewardship agreements with landowners more than a decade ago. Under such agreements, landowners agree to provide and follow a written forest management plan reviewed and approved by ODF are allowed to continue operating their business under that plan for a defined period of time, in a more stable regulatory environment. The term of the agreement is 50 years, similar to other stewardship agreements in place elsewhere in Oregon. This timeframe was agreed to by both parties, and also determined to be appropriate because typical harvest cycles average 35-50 years in the Pacific Northwest.
Owned by the same family since the early 20th century, Port Blakely has been involved in forestry in the Pacific Northwest for five generations. The company owns 149,000 acres of forestland in both Oregon and Washington State as well as 93,000 acres in New Zealand. In parallel to the stewardship agreement, the company is working with federal agencies to finalize a Habitat Conservation Plan for this forest. That agreement would be the company’s third voluntary federal conservation agreement. Since 2002 the company’s U.S. forestlands have been certified through the Sustainable Forest Initiative, earning recertification every year since.
The final agreement can be viewed online at