Final chapter written for the Elliott

 Final chapter written for the Elliott

 

The State Land Board, SLB, on December 13, 2022, formally put an end to the once great Elliott State Forest. Now the Elliott formally becomes the Elliott State Research Forest, ESRF, co-owned by a new government entity and Oregon State University.

 

Governor Kate Brown, Treasurer Tobias Read and Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, who make up the current SLB, officially decoupled the Elliott from its 90-year obligation to the Common School Fund. No longer will there be a mandate on managing the Elliott for schools with the payment of $221 million from Oregon taxpayers to compensate the CSF.

 

This ends a long and sordid history of the Elliott that was prompted by environmentalists’ lawsuits challenging timber sales that were purported to be in habitat of Marbled Murrelets. The seabird can fly from the ocean inland for 60 miles to find an appropriate nest tree. However, advocates deemed that flying over a small timber harvest would doom the bird to extinction.

 

Rather than challenge the legal and factual basis of the suit, the State of Oregon, under the direction from Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, surrendered all future management opportunity for the Elliott and paid the plaintiffs nearly $400,000 in attorneys’ fees.

 

This lack of a strong legal defense led to several proposals for the future of the Elliott, including selling the 80,000-acre forest to a local forest management company. Governor Brown and Treasurer Read wilted in the face of the outcry from preservationists so the sale was pulled, and new options were sought.

 

It was Read’s idea to give the Elliott to OSU. OSU balked at that idea when they realized the potential liability involved in owning a large block of forest land. A large stakeholder’s group and the Division of State Lands developed the notion of turning the Elliott into a research forest.

 

The 2022 legislature adopted laws that created the Elliott State Research Forest and created an entity to manage it in conjunction with OSU. They also appropriated $121 million to pay the balance owed the CSL.

 

The new statutes led to the SLB’s actions on December 13, 2022, thereby ending any requirement to manage the forest, although the new ESRF plans to sell limited timber sales to keep the forest afloat without the continual need for subsidies.

 

Don’t be surprised to see the preservationists throw a fit over any proposed timber harvesting. In other words, you haven’t heard the last of the Elliott…

Counties Win Big

Counties Win Big

Elliott State Forest-The Long and Sordid History

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:

Let’s Talk Timber, Madame Governor!!!

Two bills plot starkly different courses for Elliott State Forest

State Officials hoping for magic

Land Board Bails on Elliott Solution

New Members Overrule Governor

Cap and Trade or Cap and Cause Problems???

Oregon’s Forest Products Industry is possibly headed for a very uncomfortable debate in the upcoming 2019 session of the legislature. Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, previously reluctant to adopt Carbon Cap and Trade legislation, has stated his intention to pass such a bill in 2019.

To demonstrate his commitment, Sen. Courtney has joined Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, in chairing the Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction. The Committee has been meeting in preparation for Carbon legislation adoption in 2019 since the adjournment of the 2018 Short Session in March.

Carbon legislation means different things for the various sectors of the Forest Products Industry. Forest landowners see the opportunity for additional revenue from selling carbon allowances for growing forests to carbon dioxide emitters in Oregon and throughout North America.  The allowances can mitigate the Carbon dioxide emissions from forest product manufacturing.

Forest product manufacturers may be taxed for their carbon dioxide emissions. To avoid the fees they may be forced to curtail their operations to reduce emissions. One option is for manufacturers to purchase emission allowances from forestland owners who agree to restrict harvests on their own forestland.

Forest operators, like loggers, see the impending Cap and Trade legislation as more restrictions and increased taxes on diesel which is a critical component for converting forests to logs for mills. Expect to see manufacturers, loggers and forestland owners all seeking Cap and Trade specifications that protect their forestry interests. 

The forestry interests could lead to different stances on the Cap and Trade legislation. Landowners may choose to increase the harvest age of their forests to generate carbon credits. Recently much of Oregon’s private forestland has been transferred to Timber Investment Management Organizations and Real Estate Investment Trusts. These new landowners have investors with different financial objectives then Oregon’s traditional large forest landowners.

Most Oregon wood processing plants have adapted to the drastic curtailment of large logs from Federal Forest land since the 1990s. The small log processing mills can’t use large logs that would come from older trees which have carbon credits as their objective. Landowners must weigh the revenue from Carbon credits against the lower prices for their large logs.

Debates over the price of Carbon credits and the limits forest product manufacturers may be the theme of the negotiations over 2019 Cap and Trade legislation.

Elliott State Forest – Who would believe this???

Elliott State Forest – Who would believe this???

The Elliott State Forest in Southwestern Oregon is a sad reminder of how far off center public forest management has become. The Elliott, once the quintessential managed forest boasting spectacular, rugged scenery and home to a world class Douglas fir forest, is now destined to be mired in bureaucratic gridlock as elected officials have punted on a rational solution to this unique forest.

Previously, the Elliott provided millions of dollars to Oregon’s Common School Fund while generating a once reliable supply of timber for local forest product manufacturers and loggers. This resulted in thousands of family-wage local jobs.

The Perfect Storm of environmentalist litigation, bureaucratic incompetence and timid elected officials led to the current situation that has the State of Oregon selling $100 million in bonds to pay for half the value of the Elliott to the Common School Fund.

Meanwhile, the State Land Board, the Constitutional manager of the Elliott, has retained the Department of Forestry, ODF, to negotiate a Habitat Conservation Plan, HCP, with the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Wait, isn’t that how we got here?

ODF spent ten years in a failed try to negotiate an HCP with the Federal agencies. The futile effort led the SLB of John Kitzhaber, Kate Brown and Ted Wheeler to give up on the effort and adopt a modified Endangered Species Act strategy which led to litigation. The Department of Justice surrendered without a fight and paid the environmental non-profits $400,000.

The lack of timber revenue led to a failed attempt to sell the Elliott in order to meet their responsibilities to the CSF by the Kitzhaber-Brown-Wheeler SLB. Governor Kate Brown and new Treasurer Tobias Read flipped flopped over and over enough to torpedo the sale to Lone Rock Resources the only bidder for the $220.8 million Elliott.

Now we have Oregon spending twice as much in bonds to pay the CSF for half of the Elliott, all the while for a forest it already owns. It is only believable if own has witnessed the decades of twists and turns over the Elliott.

Let’s not forget that the Oregon State University School of Forestry is trying to raise $120 million to pay for the balance of the Elliott. Forestry Dean Thomas Maness wants to turn the once hard-working Elliott into a research/experimental forest to explore forest management and endangered species relationships.

Meanwhile, the CSF is on the hook for the forest and road management costs and fire protection assessments as ODF again tries to negotiate and implement an HCP. As we have seen for the past 25 years, nothing with the Elliott happens quickly. Stay tuned.

State Land Board's decision on Elliott Forest a disappointment

It's unanimous: Elliott State Forest will remain publicly owned

Oregon School Boards Threaten Lawsuit Over Elliott State Forest Revenue

Timber company sues state agency over Elliott State Forest deal

Lawmakers back $100 million for Elliott State Forest, $50 million for UO campus

Oregon State Land Board: Elliott State Forest to stay public

State Land Board: Delaying the inevitable?

Delaying the inevitable?

The State Land Board has delayed their decision on the proposed sale of the Elliott State Forest to Lone Rock Resources and two American Indian Tribes from April to May.  The delay allows Governor Kate Brown who was outvoted when new State Treasurer Tobias Read proposed amending the pending sale agreement to buy back $25 million worth of special recreational or environmental acres. New Secretary of State Dennis Richardson joined Read in supporting the sale.

Brown is trying to use $100 million in bonds to pay the Common School Fund for the Elliot, which Oregon already owns. That is less than half of the $220.8 million Lone Rock is willing to pay. The legislature would have to approve both Brown’s $100 million and Read’s $25 million. This is problematic since there is currently a $1.6 billion hole in the budget.

The Governor has enlisted the help of the Department of Forestry, ODF, to develop an option for the state to maintain the Elliott. ODF has managed the Elliott on behalf of the SLB since the Elliott became Oregon’s first State Forest in the 1930s. Funding for ODF’s management of the Elliott runs out on June 30^th of this year.

In anticipation of not having the sale finalized and needing someone to care for the Elliott, the Department of State lands has issued a Request For Proposal for an interim manager of the forest. Yet another strange twist in the Elliott saga…

If the Governor is successful in rounding up $100 million, she still needs one more vote from the three-member board. Read has been under tremendous pressure from shocked environmentalists to change his position. Old time environmental advocates have come in from the hinter lands and have been seen in the Capitol Lobbying Read.

Read has proclaimed his responsibility is to Oregon’s school children to protect the value of the Common School Fund asset. John Charles, longtime follower of the Elliott, and President and CEO of Cascade Policy Institute also calls for selling the Elliott in a recent OpEd. Charles pegged the value of the Elliott at $850 million in 1995. The current appraised value of $220.8 million reflects the restrictions the SLB has placed on the Elliott.