GRANTS PASS — Oregon’s state forester resigned Tuesday after the Board of Forestry decided it needed a new leader to find ways of living with lower budgets and increased demands in a state where timber remains a leading industry.

Marvin Brown turned in his resignation at a special meeting of the board in Salem to take up issues over his performance evaluation.

Board of Forestry Chairman John Blackwell told The Associated Press that the board wants fresh leadership at the top of the Department of Forestry, which manages state forests, regulates industrial timber harvest on private lands, fights wildfires on 16 million acres of private and federal lands, and advises small timberland owners and urban forests.

Declining state general fund support forced the department to cut 50 people advising timberland owners and boost assessments on private landowners for fire protection. Meanwhile, revenues from timber harvests have declined along with housing starts in the recession.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to pay for what we need to do,” Blackwell said. “To do that, we’ve got to have very good relationships with all our stakeholder groups.”

Brown was Missouri’s state forester when he was hired by Oregon in 2003, and represented a shift from a tradition of promoting from within and state foresters ending their careers in retirement with a state forest named after them.

Neither the timber industry nor conservation groups were happy with Brown’s leadership as the state confronted demands to boost harvests from the timber industry and counties that share timber revenues on state forests.

Jim Geisinger, executive director of Associated Oregon Loggers, said Brown could have done a better job to steer the Board of Forestry to stronger support for timber production, and win better funding from the Legislature.

“In spite of everything that’s happened to this industry, we’re still the second-biggest in Oregon,” he said. “We think there could have been some stronger leadership through difficult times.”

Bob Van Dyk, forest policy manager for the Wild Salmon Center, said it had not had a collaborative relationship with Brown as the board moved to increase timber harvests on state forests in northwestern Oregon, which they felt was harmful to some of the state’s strongest salmon runs.

“None of us enjoy conflict,” he said.

Mike Carrier, natural resources adviser to the governor, said Brown had many successes during his eight years as state forester, such as getting the Legislature to buy private forest lands to create the Gilchrist State Forest and coming up with a set of recommendations for ways the state could collaborate with national forests for better forest management.

But his ability to relate to the conservation groups, outdoor recreation groups and timber industry groups pushing in different directions was clearly waning, Carrier said.

“I think that it’s just a natural cycle that all of us in those kinds of executive positions go through after that many years,” Carrier said.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski issued a statement praising Brown’s work, saying he was leaving with a solid record of achievement.

Director of State Forests Nancy Hirsch will serve as interim state forester, department spokesman Dan Postrel said.

Brown will take leave until his resignation becomes official at the end of the year.