Planting seedlings for the future: Disaster-relief forest restoration grant helps landowners in post-wildfire recovery

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The 2020 and 2021 fire seasons greatly impacted the state of Oregon, burning close to two million acres and having a particularly devastating effect on 650,000 acres of forested lands in Eastern Oregon.

The Oregon Department of Forestry received a Disaster Relief–Fire Recovery Restoration Grant in 2022 from the USDA Forest Service to aid private landowners in post-wildfire recovery efforts post-wildfire.

This aid is crucial, as continued drought, lower timber market values, and forest labor capacity create even more issues for the timber industry in Oregon.

The initiative focuses on collecting seeds, growing viable seedlings in the future, building an inventory of tree seeds and growing seedlings for post-fire restoration.

Additional goals are to provide funding for reforestation and site preparation efforts, and provide technical assistance, outreach, and education to promote restoration of wildfire-damaged forests in Eastern Oregon.

The first measure of success came in the spring of this year, when the first seedlings became available for planting. In April, the stewards of this grant were responsible for getting 750,000 seedlings planted on 5,600 acres of private land impacted by fire across Klamath and Lake counties.

The reforestation grant enabled the Eastern Oregon Area—specifically, the hard-hit south-central Oregon region—to benefit from this initiative by laying the groundwork for recovery and reforestation efforts by ODF and other landowners and partner agencies.

"Several factors in Eastern Oregon, including drought, weak timber markets, and infrastructure shortages make restoration incredibly difficult,” said Jennifer Case, Forest Resource Manager for the Klamath-Lake District. “On top of that, there’s a limited supply of viable seeds and seedlings.”

The primary expectations of the grant were to achieve reforestation of 2,000 private land acres and collect enough seed stock to produce two million seedlings.

The team has exceeded the acreage goals with the spring 2025 planting and have collected more than half of the desired amount of seed. This would not be possible without great ODF partnerships and additional assistance from a well-established Federal Forest Restoration and Good Neighbor Authority programs.

“The goal is to have a viable seed and seedling crop available for our landowners,” she said. “When collecting on private landowner properties, we want to harvest in ways that leave no trace and preserve the health of their trees and forests.”

The effort would not be successful without our partners. ODF reached out to people in from areas of the state where seedling management and reforestation are performed more often.

"The eastern part of Oregon just doesn’t see the same level of timber regrowth as the west," Jennifer noted. "Our drier climate and limited rainfall present unique challenges.”

The team, formed of people with post-fire restoration knowledge and a capacity to build partnerships, is equipped to meet those challenges.

Teresa Williams, Klamath-Lake District Forester, says the group has taken the initiative head on: “The team is doing tremendous work to support landowners and help rebuild our forest landscape.” 

Last year, Matt Anspach, FFR Coordinator, led the charge in the cone collection effort in partnership with ODF and other private landowners, state and federal agencies, and industry, facilitating the collection of 1.4 million seeds to grow seedlings for reforestation.

Case reiterated, “Seedlings are in short supply in most years. ODF is able to assist landowners in acquiring both seed and seedlings.”

She went on to say, “We hope to support Eastern Oregon’s efforts to reduce the seed shortage through the development of an inventory of seed ready for post fire restoration needs. There is a proposed seed orchard to be used as a long-term seed source fix for our region. However, the benefits of an established orchard will not be seen for several years.”

For now, the team is incredibly happy with what they have accomplished to date; getting 750,000 trees in the ground is a remarkable success. Working partnerships with industry and other land organizations, as well as people with diverse skill sets and backgrounds ensure the team has the right tools to continue localized reforestation efforts which in turn will benefit the Central Oregon Region into the distant future.