The Forest Practices Act also applies to state forestlands, however, the State Forests Program is developing a long-range plan and other associated plans specifically for management of western Oregon state forests. The Forest Management Plans (FMPs) lay out prescriptions and strategies for state forest management that generally exceed those of the Oregon Forest Practices Act because of their differing resource management objectives. The focus of most private forest landowners is the growing and harvesting of trees, while State lands are largely managed to balance a mix of economic, social and environmental benefits.

The centerpiece of the FMPs is a strategy called Structure-based Management. Under this approach, the forest lands are managed to create stand conditions that emulate those that occur naturally in unmanaged stands (with older and younger stands of trees intermixed), but doing so in far fewer years through active management.