Forest Authority Legislation in the State of Oregon
Upon establishing USFC, we realized that new financial tools would be required to raise the large amounts of capital necessary to finance forest conservation transactions and we set out to address the challenge by developing a strategy for tapping into the taxable and tax-exempt bond market.
This work entailed researching and drafting legislation that would allow municipalities in Oregon to create “Community Forest Authorities,” whose purpose is to issue loans to qualified non-profit organizations for forestland acquisitions. With access to this debt, non-profits can leverage traditional sources of money to permanently conserve forestland while maintaining sustainable harvest levels.
The Forest Authority bill passed the Republican controlled State Senate 26 to 4 and the House 55 to 0 before being signed into law by the Governor.
At present, we are pursuing companion legislation at the federal level that would allow tax-exempt revenue financing to be used for forestland acquisitions. (For more information, please see Community Forestry Bonds and Federal Legislation under the New Products page.
