Oregon forestry officials now have a general idea of how they’ll find a new state forester — more than four months after Cal Mukumoto’s sudden resignation from the job.

The state forester leads the Oregon Department of Forestry. The role is critical to overseeing environmental and logging regulations on state lands, as well as firefighting across 16 million acres of public and private forest lands.

It could take another two to four months to fill the role, state human resources staff told the Board of Forestry on Wednesday. The board might choose who will lead the state’s forestry department, but that depends on a bill making its way through the legislature.

In February, Gov. Tina Kotek introduced a bill that would give her the power to choose Mukumoto’s replacement. It’s currently sitting with the Senate finance committee.

Mukumoto resigned in January after months of turmoil over workplace conduct investigations, questionable spending and a massive, albeit temporary, financial deficit resulting from the state’s most expensive fire season on record.

The ongoing leadership shakeup comes at a pivotal time for the forestry department, as the Legislature considers bills that could change how the state covers wildfire costs and reshape wildfire hazard mapping.

The state also faces a potentially dire wildfire season ahead, and President Donald Trump’s drastic federal staffing cuts could lead to lackluster firefighting response on the 32 million acres of federal lands that make up over half of Oregon’s land base.

Kate Skinner, formerly the Tillamook district forester, has been Oregon’s interim forester since Mukumoto’s departure.

During Wednesday’s state forestry board meeting, Skinner said U.S. Forest Service officials recently assured her that the federal agency will be “engaged and ready to go for this fire season,” even with reduced staff. Some board members were skeptical, given the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to cut jobs and limit hiring at the federal agency.

“Let me just state the obvious: They’ll have fewer people. They will not likely be able to do the job that we would like them to do,” board chair Jim Kelly said. “We need to be highly conscious of that in our own planning through the fire season this year.”

Why it matters that Oregon just lost its chief forester

Seven people signed up to testify at Wednesday’s meeting to provide input on what they hope to see in the next state forester.

This may be one of the few opportunities for public input, as the board is considering ways to keep the recruitment process private to protect potential job candidates.

“The more this can be done in private, the larger the pool of candidates will be,” board member Ben Deumling said. “I can imagine some folks who might want to apply, but might want not want to make it known to the world that they are applying for this job early on.”

Kylen Stevens, Oregon Department of Administrative Services executive recruiter, recommended the board break up some selection processes to individual board members or subcommittees, so it wouldn’t have to announce candidates in a public meeting.

“Typically we structure these processes so that only your finalists are the individuals that would meet with public groups such as your staff or interested parties,” Stevens said.

Last time the board selected a state forester, in 2021, it held public meetings among forestry groups and tribes with the final three candidates.

“Then we ended up with just very few people that met the minimum qualifications and it came down to the last person standing,” Kelly said. “As somebody who’s done a fair amount of hiring and firing, usually the best people already have a job.”

Kelly said he would prefer to have the final three candidates “closely held by this board” before it announces the final candidate.

“We owe it to the people of Oregon to have a national search and to truly have the most-qualified people all be able to apply,” Kelly said.

Forestry board member Alexi Lovechio wondered if there was going to be any public engagement at all.

“How are we gathering input, if at all, from the public at large?” Lovechio asked.

The board discussed some options — including using a survey to gather input — but ultimately didn’t make a final decision on how much it will involve the public in choosing the next state forester.

Next in the recruitment process, as outlined by Stevens, board members will list minimum qualifications and desired attributes they want to see in a candidate, create plans for advertising to and recruiting candidates, then interview and select final candidates.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/04/27/oregon-state-forester-recruitment-plan/