The Oregon Forest Practices Act (FPA) requires forest landowners and operators to notify the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) at least 15 days before they begin forest operations on any non-federal lands in Oregon. As defined in the FPA, forest operations include timber harvesting, road construction and reconstruction, site preparation, slash treatment, woody biomass removal, chemical application, land use changes, and certain non-commercial forest activities among other activities, permits are required for any operation using power driven machinery or fire. The Notification of Operations and Application for Permit (NO/AP) process is conducted through the ODF Private Forests, and Protection from Fire divisions.

In 2014 the ODF updated the NO/AP process by implementing its Forest Activity Electronic Notification and Reporting System (FERNS), a web-based, centralized database of all forestry operations subject to ODF oversight. The FERNS application is integrated with the State’s GIS system. Any interested person or party can subscribe to FERNS and then receive electronic notifications of pending forest operations in their area. Subscribers can also review and submit official comments about the forest operation work plans. Online subscriptions to FERNS are free of charge.

More training and educational materials are available from the E-Notification page here.