Gov. Kotek issues executive order placing climate lens on farms, forests, waterways

Gov. Tina Kotek wants Oregon to go full force on harnessing the potential of forests, farms, wetlands and waterways to reduce emissions, preserve wildlife habitat and help communities withstand the threat of climate change.

That’s the focus of a sweeping executive order Kotek issued on Thursday to prioritize conservation on both natural landscapes such as forests or wetlands as well as on so-called working lands – farms, ranches and commercial timberlands. It also includes waterways and state-managed ocean waters.

Kotek’s order calls on state agencies to collectively protect or restore 10% more land and waterways over the next decade, based on current baseline conditions, with a focus on safeguarding the most climate-resilient landscapes.

The mandate does not include specific acreage requirements and encompasses both private and public land. It could save more old-growth forests and tidal wetlands or promote more conservation practices on farms and ranches. It also might make more money available for people to make their properties more resilient to wildfires.

It is modeled after former President Joe Biden’s goal to conserve 30% of U.S. lands, freshwater and ocean areas by 2030 – though Kotek’s order goes well beyond land preservation.

“Climate change is threatening how we live in Oregon and we can’t sit and just let this happen to us,” Kotek told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “How do we do the most we can with what we have?”

The order comes as the state faces both a significant revenue shortfall due to federal tax cuts and the loss of billions of dollars in Biden-era climate, renewable energy and conservation-related funding that the Trump administration has frozen or rescinded in Oregon and elsewhere. Oregon also is facing the possibility that it won’t reach its own aggressive clean energy targets.

Research has shown that landscapes can offset a significant amount of emissions. Plants, trees and microorganisms in soil remove carbon from the atmosphere and store, or sequester it, reducing the impacts of climate change.

Marshes, river soils, floodplains and ocean floors play a similar function. To sequester carbon, farmers can reduce soil disturbance or plant cover crops and forest managers can choose to avoid logging some or all trees, among other practices.

There’s a caveat: The benefits can be fleeting. If the soils or plants are disturbed – via wildfires, logging, agricultural tillage or erosion – they can release all or some of the carbon back into the atmosphere.

To carry out landscape-based solutions, Kotek’s order forgoes new regulations and instead focuses on voluntary actions that also aim to boost Oregon’s rural economy.

Rather than creating new programs, Kotek directs state agencies to improve on existing conservation programs and to strengthen or streamline incentives that can help farmers, forest owners, fishing interests, businesses, nonprofits and other landowners adopt climate-friendly practices. This can be done by easing access to grant and loan applications, accelerating permits for restoration projects, expanding access to existing funding and boosting technical support, the order says.

“The ranchers, farmers, they’re stewards of the land, they understand what’s happening and what’s changing,” Kotek said. “This order is about creating better opportunities to work with people in a voluntary fashion.”

Kotek’s order also requires state agencies to develop climate-friendly practices for publicly owned lands, including parks, forests, wildlife areas and state-owned coastal waters.

Kotek said she first realized the climate action potential of natural and working lands in 2018 when, as then-House speaker, she and Senate President Peter Courtney co-chaired the Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction, a special legislative committee formed to develop a cap-and-invest program aimed at reducing statewide carbon emissions.

Cap-and-trade legislation failed to move forward in Oregon. But in 2020, when former Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she also required the state to establish a carbon sequestration target for its forests, farms and other working lands.

Two years ago, Oregon established a policy framework to advance natural climate solutions as well as launch a permanent natural and working lands fund as part of a climate bill signed by Kotek. Last year, the Oregon Climate Action Commission approved $10 million in investments via this fund, allowing several state agencies to provide additional financial incentives, technical assistance and other programs to implement voluntary conservation strategies on farms, ranches, in forests, grasslands and wetlands.

Kotek’s proposed 2025-27 state budget included another $5 million investment in the fund but it was not approved during the legislative session, the governor’s office said.

Already, the state has set a carbon sequestration goal: to sequester at least an additional 5 million metric tons of combined greenhouse gas (called carbon dioxide equivalent) per year by 2030 — that’s equivalent to the annual emissions of over 1 million cars or the yearly emissions of one large coal plant.

And the Oregon Department of Energy and the Climate Action Commission are also developing a land-based net carbon inventory for Oregon’s natural and working lands that will quantify greenhouse gas emissions and carbon storage in soil and plants as well as the impact of disturbances such as wildfires. The first iteration of the inventory is set to be released in December.

But the executive order goes well beyond carbon sequestration, Kotek said, by focusing on improving overall community resilience to climate change, which can lead to improving residents’ health and well-being, enhancing the survival of iconic fish and wildlife species and reducing fire and flood risks.

“I think the average person can see something is different, something is happening – wildfires, floods, heat waves, it’s coming at us,” Kotek said. “So we have to build resilience.”

That effort, says the order, should take many shapes. For one, the state will help Oregon communities become better prepared for wildfires, including by helping homeowners build defensible space around their homes, expanding prescribed burns and Indigenous-led cultural burns, improving air quality alerts during fire season and encouraging the development of community smoke response plans.

The state also will refine or expand tools such as mitigation banks or funds that run habitat restoration projects into which developers can pay to offset the damage to the natural landscape caused by construction or other development. Another option is to boost partnerships among farmers, land trusts and conservation districts.

Environmental groups immediately praised the order.

“By investing in the health of Oregon’s forests, rangelands, farmlands, and estuaries – and by fostering stronger collaboration among agencies, Tribes, and local communities – Oregon can advance practical solutions that safeguard livelihoods, help us adapt to our changing climate and ensure a resilient future for everyone,” said Derek Johnson, Oregon State Director of The Nature Conservancy.

The order’s implementation will begin immediately with the establishment of an interagency technical team led by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. State agencies will also be required to produce mandatory biennial plans to execute the order. The public will be asked to comment on the plans.

State agencies will first have to identify which land areas and waterways are most likely to withstand climate change, said Chandra Ferrari, Kotek’s natural resources adviser. They’ll also need to come up with a baseline and decide which land-related actions fit the mandate, she added.

Kotek said the order is one of a series of actions she’s taking to push the ball forward on preventing and responding to global warming.

Earlier this month, she signed another executive order focused on streamlining the siting and permitting reviews for large-scale solar and wind energy projects in Oregon so that they can begin construction by summer 2026, in time to qualify for federal clean energy tax credits set to expire early due to the passage of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

And, Kotek said, she’s planning more climate action in the near future, including on emissions.

“By the end of the year, you will see a suite of executive orders,” she said. “We can’t stand still. If the federal government’s not going to act, the states have to.”