LONG CREEK – A forest researcher based near Long Creek, has been named to an advisory group that provides information about the concerns and interests of small-acreage and family forest owners to the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF).

Roje Gootee co-owns and manages the 2,443-acre Rush Creek Ranch near Long Creek.

According to information from the ODF, the ranch was purchased in 1997, in depleted condition. But, with ongoing forest, range, and riparian restoration efforts, it is responding. In 2004, Rush Creek Ranch earned American Tree Farm System certification for forest management standards. Gootee works as an independent consultant specializing in natural resource stewardship and policy.

She was named to the 10-person Committee for Family Forestlands, which includes family forest landowners, forest industry representatives, environmental community and public members, and staff representing the ODF, Oregon State University and the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.

Gootee holds a baccalaureate degree in forest management from Utah State University and a PhD in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences from Washington State University. Her research focuses on the social and legal interface between private forests and environmental regulatory policy, and she has presented her work in professional and academic settings including Yale University and international conferences in Ireland and France.

“She is committed to improving public understanding of environmental issues and working toward socially- and ecologically-sustainable policy solutions,” noted an ODF representative.

Small-acreage private woodland owners and forest-owning families manage 4.7 million acres of Oregon’s forests, about 15 percent of the state’s forest footprint. More than half of Oregon’s family forest owners are over 65, with many in their 70s and 80s. Many thousands of acres of Oregon’s forest land are poised to change ownership within the next decade, with economic pressures driving both new and long-time forest owners to consider converting their forest to other uses, including residential development or commercial land.

Additional information about forest management is available on the Oregon Department of Forestry website, (www.oregon.gov/ODF)