Oregon School District Sues Oregon Department of Forestry Over New Forest Management Plan

Oregon’s Jewell School District filed a lawsuit in Oregon Circuit Court last week against the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) over declining timber revenues as the state prepares to implement a new management plan for its forests, KGW8 reported (3-27-24).

In Oregon, revenues from timber harvests on state lands are divided between the counties where they’re harvested and the department. Those funds support, among other things, public education.

John DiLorenzo, an attorney representing the Jewell School District, told KGW8 that at the crux of the lawsuit is a provision in the 2010 Northwest Oregon Forest Management Plan that requires the department to “Maintain a budgeting and financial management system that assures that revenues derived from these state forest lands are sufficient to cover the department’s costs.”

DiLorenzo alleges that the department has failed to comply with the rule. “There happens to be a law, it’s an Oregon administrative rule, that requires that the department must at least break even on its share of the revenues,” DiLorenzo said. “It’s not doing that.”

“The school district received $4.2 million in timber revenues last year,” DiLorenzo told KGW8. “The long and the short of it is they’re going to lose about 35% of their revenues that are going to have to be made up somehow.”

“We are asking for a court to rule that the department has two choices,” he said. “Increase the harvest revenues so Jewell can continue to offer the quality education it offers or share in the sacrifice that it is expected of all these local governments and sharply reduce its own staff.”

According to KGW8, the department declined to comment, citing pending litigation.