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

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