SALEM — Bruce Hanna, co-speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, said it twice, enunciating slowly, as if trying to wrap his head around the idea: The governor plans to use state money to help manage federal forests.

“I can’t get that,” Hanna told Brett Brownscombe, Gov. John Kitzhaber’s natural resources policy advisor, on Tuesday. Brownscombe spoke at a session of the joint county task force on legislative payments.

So the plan, the Republican from Roseburg asked, is to spend $4.5 million of state money toward thinning, restoring and harvesting timber on federal lands?

The answer: yes.

“Why are we spending state money to manage federal forests?” Hanna asked.

Brownscombe agreed that the concept, part of Kitzhaber’s budget plan unveiled last week, is unique.

“If we want more of the same, we could continue to beat that drum and it’s not without merit,” Brownscombe said. “But we don’t want more of the same.”

The idea is to use $4.5 million in lottery-backed state bonds to help fund local federal forest collaboratives.

The state hopes to partner with the federal government with the idea that the state will spend its money to leverage federal funds.

There are no specifics worked out with the federal government, Brownscombe said, but talks have begun.

“The governor is willing to put state money into advancing the pace and scale of federal forest management work,” Brownscombe said. “Most states have not been willing to do that. He’s saying, ‘I’m tired of the gridlock at the congressional level … This issue is too important to not make an investment.’”

The idea is that local federal forest collaboratives will have key stakeholders around the table figuring out ways to harvest timber and manage it more actively, in part so it is not wiped out by fires.

The governor believes giving money to locals to figure out ways to manage the federal forests will spur rural economies, create jobs and help avoid litigation.

Phil Chang, with the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, said the idea has worked so far with the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project.

The collaborative has focused on a 150,000 acres between Bend, Sisters and Mt. Bachelor. With 19 different stakeholders at the table — environmentalists and industry stakeholders, Chang said — the group is restoring, thinning, decommissioning roads and performing a range of other activities on 70,000 acres.

“Think about where people come to recreate and why they do it — it’s in our national forests,” Chang said.

“If we don’t take care of them, they could burn up in a fire that is unnatural and unnecessary … We have the ability to change that as Oregonians, and those are real benefits. We could wait for the federal government to have enough resources to take care of these things, but if we wait, we will lose so many of the natural resources that we value as Oregonians,” Chang said.

But, Hanna said, it’s going to be a tough sell in the Legislature, especially when it comes time to slash school funding and cut money for seniors.