The Oregon Forest Practices Act requires re-planting of new trees within two years of harvest and these new trees must be “free to grow” within six years. Additionally, federal land are also replanted following natural disasters like wildfires.

The pacific northwest continues to chip away at the backlog of reforestation work following disastrous wildfires and a systemic shortage of labor for this critical work. Many of the businesses that complete this type of service work rely on the H-2B visa program. Reforestation businesses are often front and center in this conversation, but these companies do not simply do planting work. Many of them do site preparation including hand piling of logging slash, fire line creation, pile burning, application of herbicides, road brushing and other vital service work.

In a typical year, forestry employers advertise more than 11,000 seasonal forestry jobs, but due to persistent labor shortages, only 2 percent of those positions are filled by American workers. As a result, most service work in the U.S. is performed by nonimmigrant workers with temporary H-2B visas.

Many sectors of the economy rely on the H-2B visa program to help meet their labor shortages, and demand is more than three times the legislatively mandated annual allotment of 66,000 visas. Last year, more than one-third of forestry employers were unable to secure enough U.S. or H-2B labor to meet their needs.