Elliott State Forest-The Long and Sordid History
The Elliott State Forest in Southwestern Oregon is an unbelievable example of poor public policy affecting forest management. The NW Timber Blog has reported on some of the trials and tribulations of this once proud bastion of forest management that benefited Oregon's Common School Fund and overseen by the State Land Board made up of the Governor, Secretary of State and Treasurer
The Elliott, once a great example of Multiple-Use Forestry that provided recreation, fish and wildlife habitat spectacular scenic beauty and millions of dollars in revenues for schools, is now a financial drag on the Common School Fund.
Chronology
The State Land Board, SLB, Governor John Kitzhaber, Secretary of State Kate Brown and Treasurer Ted Wheeler increased the sustained yield timber harvest to 40 million board feet per year, significantly less than the 75 mmbf annual growth on the Elliott. The harvests benefit the Common School Fund, CSF.
· Environmental groups protest the action and occupy offices of the Governor, Secretary of State and the Treasurer. Their attorneys file a lawsuit charging Endangered Species Act violations involving the Marbled Murrelet.
· The State surrenders without challenging the case, stops all forest management and pays the litigants $400,000 for their attorney fees.
· Without timber harvests, the Elliott was costing the Common School Fund $3 million/year in management costs including road maintenance and fire protection fees.
· Kitzhaber, Brown and Wheeler decide that the only viable option to stem the loses to the CSF is to sell the Elliott.
· After Kitzhaber resigns Brown is elevated to Governor. Brown and Wheeler maintain the process to sell the Elliott. Only one bid for $220.7million is submitted by a coalition of Indian Tribes and Lone Rock Timber Management Company in Roseburg.
· SLB meetings are flooded with protests over the Elliott sale proposal. After two such meetings, Brown, Wheeler and SOS Jeanne Atkins change course and cancel the sale.
· Kate Brown is reelected Governor, Ted Wheeler leaves to become Mayor of Portland and Dennis Richardson and Tobias Read replace them on the SLB.
· After canceling the sale, Brown convinces the legislature to provide $100 million in bonds as partial repayment to the CSF, essentially to buy a forest Oregon already owns.
· Treasurer Read’s plan to turn the Elliott over to the School of Forestry at Oregon State
University as a 84,000 acre research forest still needs $120.7 million to make the CSF whole.
· Today, the SLB staff and OSU are conducting public meetings in preparation for finalizing a plan to present to the SLB in December 2019.
Meanwhile Dr. Bob Zybach has been working with longtime Elliott Managing Forester Jerry Phillips and Southwestern Oregon Community College to develop an educational/recreation plan for the Elliott. The proposal is here.
More Elliott information:
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