In the wee hours of Saturday, October 30, history was made for Oregon forests and salmon rivers. After nine months of difficult negotiations—preceded by many additional months of work to bring all parties to the table—13 timber representatives and 13 conservation and fishing groups reached an unprecedented conservation agreement on the Private Forest Accords.

The agreement proposes an overhaul of the Forest Practices Act to better protect wild salmon streams on more than 10 million acres of private Oregon forestland. The changes would dramatically improve the state’s forestry rules, long considered the weakest on the West Coast. And they represent a huge step forward for climate-smart forestry, particularly in safeguarding the cold, clean water that Oregon’s wild fish will increasingly need.

Bob Van Dyk, Wild Salmon Center Oregon Policy Director, led negotiations from the conservation side of the aisle.

“There's a lot in this deal,” he says. “Let me say we tried to get a lot more, and made some painful compromises. But on the whole, we decided to agree, because we all recognize that constant gridlock serves no one: not the timber industry, and certainly not Oregon’s forests, fish, wildlife, and communities.”

The mission of the Wild Salmon Center is to promote the conservation and sustainable use of wild salmon ecosystems across the Pacific Rim.

Photo credit: Oregon timber worker (Brian Kelley @brianfilm).

Wild Salmon Center
721 NW 9th Avenue
Suite 300
Portland, OR 97209
United States

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