Jim L. Neal

Jim Neal is from a pioneer family that settled in Oregon in 1854. Mr. Neal grew up in Western Oregon and graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in Forest Engineering. Most of his career has been in natural resource management and logging with emphasis on sustainable multiple use concepts. Mr. Neal’s history with the collaborative process dates back to co-creating the Applegate project in Southern Oregon. Mr. Neal is a small business owner with clients throughout the Northwest, South and Central America, and British Columbia.

He works directly with government agencies, indigenous communities, environmental organizations, and private landowners to develop innovative silvicultural prescriptions with viable economic components on public and private land. Recently he has become involved in attempting to supplement timber revenues with additional revenue streams from the forest including products from woody biomass and recreation opportunities.

Mr. Neal has run both conventional and helicopter logging projects nationally and internationally. He has hired and managed contract loggers for multiple companies. He does economic analysis for timber values and logging costs throughout the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Neal has extensive experience working with the United States Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the local and national level. He co-developed and authored as part of the New Perspectives Research and Development Joint Venture Agreement (RDA), the Aerial Forestry Initiative (ARI). Through the New Perspectives RDA Program, he has conducted both formal, and “on the job” training of USFS and BLM personnel.

Mr. Neal’s work requires that he maintain a connection with current laws, political attitudes, markets, and trendsetters in the natural resource world. Currently, Mr. Neal is involved in waste management projects and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) activities on public lands. He also has a falling module contract with the USFS on fires.