Oregon Department of Forestry outlines budget packages and capital projects in SB 5521 informational hearing

At a March 11 informational meeting on Senate Bill 5521, James Short, Chief Financial Officer for the Oregon Department of Forestry, summarized the agency’s policy option packages and capital construction requests for the 2025–27 biennium.

Short told the Natural Resources subcommittee that the agency’s budget submission includes workforce and administrative adjustments, federal funding authority for urban and community forestry grants, position authority for fire severity staffing, and multiple capital bond requests for facility replacement and restoration.

Why this matters

The packages and capital requests define the agency’s ability to staff wildfire response, carry out federal grants, replace fire cache facilities lost to fire, modernize district campuses and preserve a historic headquarters building. Several requests require bond authorizations or increased expenditure limitation for federal grants; others are technical transfers of positions to shared service providers.

What the agency presented

- Workforce development (Package 104): Short said the package would create one new manager position in human resources to establish a workforce development function; the agency described this as a new, internally focused effort funded…