Forests seek Baker County residents for advisory committee seats

Federal forest decisions that touch Baker County are going through a small advisory table, and the U.S. Forest Service is looking for residents willing to sit in those 15 seats. The Northeast Oregon Resource Advisory Committee could help steer projects tied to grazing, timber, wildfire mitigation, recreation access and other on-the-ground work across the Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests.

The committee’s boundary follows those three forests and reaches into nine counties. To serve, nominees must live in Oregon and, as far as practical, within the committee boundary. Applications are expected to close July 13, 2026, and members will be appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture after review of background information, education, training and experience.

That gives Baker County a direct opening in a process that can influence how federal land-management dollars are spent in Northeast Oregon. The Forest Service says Secure Rural Schools resource advisory committees review Title II projects proposed by participating counties and others, recommend which ones should be funded and monitor implementation. In practice, that means the committee can help decide whether money goes toward forest health work, watershed restoration, roads, facilities and other projects that affect both public lands and nearby communities.

The stakes go well beyond one county line. Secure Rural Schools funding is described by the Forest Service as critical for schools, roads and other municipal services in more than 700 counties across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Nationwide, the agency says the program has distributed billions over the past decade, while local advisory committees help guide which projects move forward.

For Northeast Oregon, the funding has been concrete. Earlier Forest Service releases said the tri-forest committee handled a Title II pool of about $853,000 in one year and about $1.2 million in another. That is not ceremonial money. It is the kind of federal spending that can determine whether a trail gets repaired, a road gets improved, a watershed gets restored or a forest-health project moves from proposal to reality.

The committee is also meant to balance competing interests rather than reflect only one viewpoint. Forest Service materials say the membership mix is intended to include commodity and non-commodity interests, along with local-area concerns, so ranching, timber, recreation, environmental, tribal and community voices all have a path into the recommendation process. For Baker County residents who want a say in what happens on surrounding federal land, this is one of the few direct places to step in before decisions harden into policy.