Implementation of the Montreal Process: An Oregon Case Study

The state of Oregon has about 28 million acres of forestland. The west side of the state is dominated by Douglas-fir forests, and most of the east side forests are occupied by Ponderosa pines or mixed conifers. The Oregon Board of Forestry is charged with making policy for Oregon’s forests. It has relied on quantitative assessments of forest conditions for many years, but the Board’s recent focus has shifted toward the concepts of sustainability and examining a wide range of outputs. The Board has adopted the Montreal Process criteria and indicators as a framework to use to measure and communicate about sustainability. Many indicators have been adopted for use in monitoring forest conditions and evaluating policy changes. Organizing around the seven criteria of sustainability provides a consistent framework that allows us create a continuous improvement process. Planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating with the same framework has the advantage of aligning programs to work together and will allow us to learn and adjust our strategies more rapidly. We have found the Montreal Process to be a useful framework for developing forest policies and the necessary actions that contribute to social, environmental, and economic sustainability at any scale.