The Oregon Department of Forestry is now seeking nominations for the agency’s 2025 Climate Smart Forestry Award. The deadline to submit a nomination is Dec. 31, 2024. This award recognizes landowners, land managers, researchers, operators, or other forestry professionals who use climate change-adapted practices, or develop innovative methods for carbon capture, retention, or reduced carbon release. New nominations, including self-nominations are accepted. Instructions and nomination form can be found on ODF’s website.
According to the Awards Selection Committee, the goal of this award is to recognize exemplary climate and carbon practices in Oregon. The Committee wants to encourage more landowners to adopt such practices. In March 2020, Governor Brown signed an executive order that highlighted that the state is experiencing an increase in frequency and severity of wildfires that endangers public health and safety and damages rural economies. The order directed agencies, including ODF, to prepare and plan for the impacts of climate change and to take actions to encourage carbon sequestration and storage.
From that executive order the Oregon Board of Forestry in the fall of 2021 adopted ODF’s Climate Change and Carbon Plan. The idea for an awards program arose in response to that plan.
According to the Awards Selection Committee, the awards are designed to showcase emerging best practices and encourage reductions in emissions and help forests and communities adapt and become more climate resilient.
Specific actions that will be considered for recognition under the award program include:
- Efforts to improve the climate resilience of forestlands and restore ecological functions
- Climate Smart forestry practices in growing and maintaining trees
- Wildfire management, response, and fire or smoke adaptation
- Carbon reduction or capture in forest operations, such as logging or thinning
- Innovative research or products that reduce emissions or increase climate resilience
Nominees may include universities, educators, consulting and research agencies, fabricators, forest operators, and private industry firms working on non-federal lands across the state. Anyone can be nominated who’s doing climate-related mitigation and adaptation work or research, and anyone can nominate them.
