Gov. Tina Kotek abandons two nominations to Oregon forestry board after pushback

By DIRK VANDERHART/Oregon Public Broadcasting

Gov. Tina Kotek abruptly pulled back this week on a pair of nominations to the board that oversees Oregon forest policy, after blowback from environmental groups over one of her picks.

Kotek had planned to tap two men for the state Board of Forestry who have often been on opposite sides of debates over how much of Oregon’s forests should be open to logging.

One was Bob Van Dyk, a conservationist who formerly spent a dozen years with the Portland-based Wild Salmon Center. The other: Heath Curtiss, vice president of government affairs for Hampton Lumber.

The dual appointment would have left the balance unchanged on a seven-member board that is closely scrutinized for where its volunteer members stand on forest issues.

Van Dyk was slated to take the place of Chandra Ferrari, an environmental attorney who works for the state and recently began a stint in Kotek’s office. Ferrari isn’t attending meetings or taking part in votes while working in the governor’s office.

Curtiss would have stepped in for Karla Chambers, a farmer and board member of Hampton Lumber. Chambers is one of three members with financial interest in the timber industry — the maximum amount that can serve on the board under state law.

But Kotek’s office wound up scrapping both nominations. A lengthy list of board and commission nominees released by the governor’s office Wednesday contained no appointees for the forestry board, meaning lawmakers will not consider them when they meet in confirmation hearings later this month.

Van Dyk and Curtiss separately told OPB the governor’s office told them this week their names wouldn’t be on the list.

“I am not sure what happened,” Van Dyk said in a text message Thursday. “Heard things were on track, then [a] decision yesterday not to move forward.”

The reason appears tied to a letter eight environmental groups sent to Kotek’s office on Tuesday, railing against the selection of Curtiss for the board.

The groups — including Oregon Wild, the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, 350PDX and Cascadia Wildlands — argued that Curtiss would be an intransigent foe to environmental progress if allowed a spot on the board.

“Mr. Curtiss and Hampton Lumber have staked out extreme positions on numerous issues before the Board of Forestry that stand in opposition to your own policies,” they wrote to Kotek, adding: “The statements of and language used by Mr. Curtiss in public and private venues do not reflect the values of the voters who elected you.”

“The statute allows for a maximum of three members to derive income for logging related activities, but for too long this provision has, in practice, been used as an excuse to have a minimum of three members with direct conflicts on the board,” the letter said.

Curtiss has had a mediating role in forest policy in the past. Along with Van Dyk, he was among the key players in negotiating a 2021 deal between timber and environmental interests, known as the “private forest accord,” that avoided a costly ballot fight between the two sides.

Kotek’s office would not say why the governor had changed her mind, but both Curtiss and Van Dyk said they heard about the pushback from environmental groups when contacted by Geoff Huntington, Kotek’s natural resources adviser, to be told their nominations were scrapped.

Curtiss said in an email he “was honored to be considered” and suggested his membership would have brought more balance to the board. Timber interests and leaders in some rural counties are still smarting over a 4-3 vote by the Board of Forestry in March that will scale back potential logging in state-owned forests in order to protect endangered species.

“As a representative of a large rural employer, I thought [the nomination] signaled the Governor’s interest in soliciting perspectives from Oregon’s forest sector workers and rural communities,” Curtiss wrote. “There has been considerable criticism of the Governor’s office, [the Oregon Department of Forestry] and the Board of Forestry lately because rural counties and residents feel that a few urban-based environmental interest groups have outsized influence and have been advocating for policies that ignore the realities of forest management and the communities that are most directly affected by forest policy changes.”

If Kotek is hearing criticism from rural corners of the state, she’s also hearing it from environmental interests, who have sometimes complained that their issues are being sidelined as the governor focuses on her top priorities of housing, behavioral health and education.

“My experience with Gov. Kotek is she ignores environmental concerns until it becomes embarrassing to her,” said Steve Pedery, the conservation director at Oregon Wild. “We’re happy to be the chihuahua latched onto the leg of a Democrat if they’re behaving badly.”

This is not the first time nominations to the high-profile forestry board have come under fire in recent years. In 2020, then-Gov. Kate Brown failed to secure confirmations for a slate of nominees to the board that included both Chambers and Ferrari, after lobbying from the timber industry that the picks would tip the balance of the board against logging practices.

Brown wound up submitting a slightly different slate of nominees the following year with success, but only after telling The Oregonian/OregonLive that the nomination process for the board was broken.

With Kotek putting forward no nominees for confirmation this month, and Ferrari not participating in votes or meetings, the forestry board is functionally down to six members.

The governor will next be able to submit names for confirmation when lawmakers meet in late September.

While Chambers had signaled an intention to step down if Curtiss and Van Dyk were confirmed, she told OPB on Friday she will now serve out her term.

“Yes there was opposition to both candidates, but you would expect that,” Chambers said. “They provided amazing leadership in putting the private forest accord together, and you would expect controversy.”

She added: “Both are good people and good leaders, and I don’t think they deserved that.”