Oregon Plants 74,000 Trees in Wildfire Recovery Win

After wildfires tore through hundreds of thousands of acres in Oregon's Ochoco National Forest, a groundbreaking partnership just brought new life to the charred landscape.

The Oregon Department of Forestry and Ochoco National Forest completed the state's first reforestation project on federal land, planting more than 74,000 ponderosa pine seedlings across 424 acres burned in the Crazy Creek Fire. Each tiny seedling got wrapped in protective netting to keep hungry elk and deer from munching them down before they can grow.

What makes this project special isn't just the number of trees. It's the first time Oregon has written and managed a planting contract on federal forestland under the Good Neighbor Authority, a 2014 law designed to let states and federal agencies work together on restoration projects.

The 2024 fire season hit the Ochoco National Forest hard. The Crazy Creek, Rail Ridge, and Wiley Flat fires burned massive swaths of forest, creating an urgent need to replant before erosion and invasive species could take over.

When spring 2025 rolled around, the Forest Service approached Oregon's team in Prineville with a proposal to expand the state's role in recovery. Within months, they had a plan in place and seedlings ready for the 2026 planting season.

The partnership divided responsibilities smartly. The Forest Service bought the seedlings and protective materials and stored them at the ranger station. Oregon's crews handled the detailed fieldwork, from mapping planting zones to writing contracts to inspecting the final results.

Kyle Sullivan-Astor, who leads Oregon's Federal Forest Restoration Program, said the project demonstrates exactly what the Good Neighbor Authority was designed to accomplish. By combining expertise and resources from both agencies, they completed additional reforestation work that wouldn't have happened on the same timeline otherwise.

The Ripple Effect

This 424-acre project sits within a much larger recovery effort. The Forest Service planted approximately 3,000 acres with more than 500,000 seedlings across all three fire areas, with Oregon personnel leading one of the planting crews and helping inspect the work.

The success opens doors for more collaboration across Oregon's federal forestlands. The state's Federal Forest Restoration Program now works with federal agencies, tribes, counties, and forest groups on projects ranging from hazardous fuels reduction to watershed restoration to timber sale preparation.

These partnerships matter because they increase the pace and scale of forest recovery. Federal agencies have limited resources, and adding state capacity means more acres restored, more trees planted, and faster healing for landscapes that provide wildlife habitat, clean water, and recreation opportunities for generations to come.

The ponderosa pines planted this season will take years to mature, but they represent something bigger than individual trees. They're proof that when government agencies drop turf battles and work together, forests recover faster and communities benefit sooner.