SALEM — Gov. John Kitzhaber tossed the Oregon Board of Forestry a rhetorical question Wednesday: Why spend state money to manage a resource the federal government is responsible for?

Because, he said, answering his own question, “the status quo is not working.”

Kitzhaber urged the board to back his effort to have the state take a more active role in managing federal forests. Kitzhaber wants to “increase the pace and scale of dry-side forest management.”

It’s a notion he believes in enough that he’s willing to designate about $4.5 million in lottery-backed bonds to help fund local and federal forest collaboratives.

“To get something different, we have to do something different,” he said.

Kitzhaber noted the board has no control over federal forests, but can influence some aspects of their management, including efforts at fire suppression.

On that note, he used the opportunity to compare his notion of forest management with his efforts in health care, where he’s pushing for more money for preventive care. Does it make more sense to spend pennies to manage someone’s blood pressure, or wait until they have a stroke and spend billions, the governor asked.

He said the federal government spent $1.1 billion last year on fire suppression, but only $300 million reducing fuel loads.

“It makes no sense and it’s mind boggling,” he said.

Tom Imeson, the newly minted chair of the state board, said he is encouraged by the idea.

“I think you have to look at it from the perspective of what does the state get, opposed to should the state spend money to help federal lands,” Imeson said. “There are benefits to the state on this; impact on employment, and the forest health issues, on the east side … are monumental. They are in terrible shape. Failure to act is going to create far greater costs in forest fire and complete destruction of an asset that we have in Oregon.”

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

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. Allowing local stakeholders to identify timber that can be harvested without controversy will also help keep some rural, east-side mills intact.

The Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project, for example, has 19 stakeholders at the table that have identified 70,000 acres between Bend, Sisters, and Mount Bachelor that need thinning and restoration.