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Welcome to our Fall Newsletter
and 4th Quarterly Question!
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Welcome to our fourth quarter newsletter!
The -ber months are upon us and an end of a horrific fire year in Central and Eastern Oregon is finally in sight. Now we just need some good rain on all our summer-parched trees!
Much of this newsletter will be a reiteration of the News Flash that should have hit many of your in-boxes last week, but we're pretty excited that we've almost completed a full year of this newsletter, so there was no way we were missing out on this one!
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A Pre-Annual Meeting Letter from the Chair
October 9, 2026
Dear OTFS Member:
Our Annual Meeting is coming up on November 14th! It will be at the Oregon Garden in Silverton. The Events Working Group is creating a diverse morning program celebrating some of our native tree species. A highlight of the morning will be a keynote from our new Oregon State Forester, Kacey KC. The afternoon will shift focus to recognitions, from Tree Farm Inspector of the Year to Tree Farmer of the Year. This year’s candidates come from Clackamas, Columbia, Lane, Linn and Yamhill Counties. Click on the image above to learn more and register.
Your OTFS Board of Directors has also been hard at work preparing for the business meeting that will take place right before lunch. This is a very important meeting for us as an organization as the Board will be presenting an updated set of OTFS Bylaws for your approval. These Bylaws, which were overwhelmingly approved by the Board, have been updated to reflect a variety of items that our organization needs to address, including: modifying some language to be in conformance with state law; incorporating descriptions pertaining to our new, contracted Administrative Director position and Acre by Acre small-acreage stewardship program; and other administrative requirements including indemnification requirements and conflict of interest policies. These Bylaws were drafted by an attorney who was retained by the Board who specializes in nonprofit organizations, and these updated Bylaws are intended to align with and support other Board-approved rules and policies. You can also access both clean and redlined copies of the Bylaws by accessing these two links:
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We ask that you review these Bylaws prior to our Annual Meeting. This Bylaws update represents a major step forward for OTFS and we urge you to consider approving them. We are sending you a marked-up version of the original Bylaws so you can view the exact changes that the Board approved. The changes included are indicated in red. For those that have valid emails in our database, we are sending these documents electronically; for those without emails, we are sending this information through the US mail. Additionally, we are posting the same links (see above) in this Quarterly member e-newsletter.
If you have any changes to your preferred email or mailing address, please let us know.
Thank you for being a part of the Oregon Tree Farm System. We look forward to seeing you soon..
Sincerely,
Dave Bugni
OTFS, Chair
| | Another item we'll be voting on at the Annual Meeting is our draft 2027 budget. Physical copies will be available at the event, but if you'd like to take a look now, click on the button below: | | |
Hi everyone,
I’m interested in learning more about how small forest landowners are using drones, or how they might be interested in using them, for forest management. Drones can be useful for things like monitoring forest health, mapping your property, and planning management activities, but I’d like to hear what you know about them and what would be helpful to you.
If you have a few minutes, please fill out this short survey to share your experience, questions, and interest in learning more about drones and their uses in forestry.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! Your input will help us figure out what resources, workshops, or other learning opportunities might be useful for forest landowners like you.
Thanks,
Lauren Grand
OSU Extension Forestry
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Promoting Salmon Habitat:
A Small Woodland Owner's Journey
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For those that missed Promoting Salmon Habitat: A Small Woodland Owner's Journey with David Bugni, a recording of the presentation can now be viewed online by clicking the button below.
This presentation was hosted by OSU Extension's Master Woodland Manager program, with funding provided through the Oregon Forest Resources Institute. If you'd like to learn more about Oregon's Master Woodland Manager training or to chat about further opportunities in your area, please reach out to Sarah Cameron at sarah.cameron@oregonstate.edu
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Another Woodland Community Loss
Jean Tena McCloskey died in August, although her celebration of life happened in mid-October. She was another amazing woman of the OTFS and OSWA family and we extend our heartfelt sympathy to her family as they both celebrate her life and mourn her loss.
Read more about Jean here...
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EFRP Gearing Up
in Response to 2026 Fire Season
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ODF has been working with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to coordinate initiating a
sign-up period for the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) to eligible non-industrial private forestland (NIPF) owners impacted by 2026 wildfires.
FSA is still awaiting final approval from their National Office to officially open the program up for sign-ups, so for now, ODF Foresters are working with impacted landowners to determine forestland restoration needs to prepare for the EFRP open sign-up period.
The intent of the EFRP is to restore forests to their previous function prior to the disaster that caused disruption to the forest. For more details on EFRP or information on how to receive assistance, landowners should contact their local ODF Forester or nearest FSA
Service Center staff.
Impacted counties where EFRP is anticipated to be offered include Baker, Crook, Deschutes, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jackson, JeZerson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, and Wheeler.
More information can be found on the FSA EFRP Webpage:
https://www.fsa.usda.gov/resources/disaster-recovery/emergencyforest-
restoration-program-efrp .
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OFRI Training & Tours:
• This year OFRI will be doing a small harvest at the Rediscovery Forest, and we are working to develop a training series on contract development, notifications, pre-operation planning, harvesting demo, and reforestation work. Follow KnowYourForest.org events page for more details!
• While the Digital Management Planning Tool is still under construction, work is underway to update the current hard-copy tool. The hope is to have the updated version ready for TreeSchool Clackamas in March 2027.
OFRI Publications:
• The new “Reforestation in Oregon” pamphlet is now available online and is coming soon in print form.
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No QR codes this time, just one question:
Will we see you on November 14
at the Annual Meeting?
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Save the Date!
Thursday-Saturday|June 17-19, 2027
2027 Family Forest Convention & Tree Farmer of the Year Tour
Grant County
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If you want to learn more about the other six working groups, as well as a current list of Board members, feel free to check out the Board page on our website. If you're interested in learning more about the Landowner Journey working group in particular, you're really in luck because we have our own page on the website: The Landowner Journey. In a nutshell, the Landowner Journey working group exists to support YOU, Oregon forest landowners committed to sustainable forest management, wherever you are in your journey, from folks just starting out to long-time OTFS members.
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