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The Elliott State Forest in Southwest Oregon could be closer to staying in public hands after State Treasurer Tobias Read said March 28, 2017 he sees a 'path forward' to keeping the land in public ownership. (Tony Andersen/Oregon Dpt. of Forestry)

(Tony Andersen/Oregon Dpt. of Forestry)

Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read said Tuesday he now supports a plan to keep the Elliott State Forest in public hands.

Read's declaration comes more than a month after he said the "best and most realistic plan" for the 82,500-acre forest was to proceed with the planned $221 million sale to Lone Rock Timber Management and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians.

His reversal could change the forest's fate. Oregon got drawn into the national limelight for considering the sale, just as it was competing for a prized outdoor sporting goods conference that dropped its home in Utah because of the public lands stances of officials there.

Read's statement also tilts the balance on the State Land Board, which includes Secretary of State Dennis Richardson and Gov. Kate Brown. Read and Richardson, a Republican, said last month that the state should sell the land because of its financial responsibility to generate money. Brown had pushed in recent months to retain public ownership.

In an interview Tuesday, Read said he now sees "momentum" in the Legislature for keeping the land in public hands. The first-term treasurer said he was always open to that option, and now he sees increased action and interest in Salem.

"It's an ongoing effort," the Democrat said of the still-evolving plan kick-started by Brown that would keep old-growth and other environmentally valuable portions of the forest in public hands and shelve the $221 million sale. "I'm confident that path is there."

Read's statement Tuesday came just weeks after conservation groups and public lands advocates rallied outside his office and pressed him to vote against the sale. He insisted it was not a change in position.

"I feel like I've said all along that my job is to look out for the state's fiduciary responsibilities."

Oregon leaders say they are constitutionally required to make money off the land, which is tied to the Common School Fund. That account generates revenue for K-12 education across the state. But timber revenue started falling in 2012, following legal pressure from environmental groups over logging in sensitive habitat.

Environmental groups have disputed whether the state does have to generate significant amounts of revenue from the forest.

Brown issued a statement Tuesday saying she was heartened that Read shared her commitment to keeping the Elliott public while making the Common School Fund whole. "Particularly given the current national political landscape, retaining the Elliott State Forest in public ownership is critical to ensure the sustainable harvest of timber to fulfill our fiduciary obligation," she said.

Richardson also issued a statement, adding that all three land board members want to make sure the Common School Fund lands benefit Oregon children. "Treasurer Read is a thoughtful person, and I look forward to learning more about his thinking on this issue at the next Land Board meeting."

The three elected officials can't confer with one another outside of the land board meetings due to state public meetings law.

Read said he's also been buoyed by Senate President Peter Courtney's support for issuing state bonds to free at least some of the forest from its Common School Fund requirements.

Courtney issued a statement saying he supports keeping the land public and will "remain open to considering bonding as part of a solution."

The news did not go over as well with the lone suitors for the property.

Toby Luther, Lone Rock's CEO, issued a statement blasting Tuesday's developments without mentioning the treasurer by name.

The Douglas County timber executive said the company's proposal alongside the Cow Creek tribe "met every criteria laid down before us" over a two-and-a-half-year period. Luther said that ultimately Brown wanted a different vision than the one she backed in August 2015.

"If state leaders who advanced this process never had the intent to allow for private ownership, they had a duty to be clear and forthright with their expectations," Luther said.

"Goodwill between our state and its many rural communities is further eroded by this futile exercise," he said.

Luther said the company would continue to support "the schoolchildren of Oregon and the land ethic" of the state despite the "fickle nature of Oregon politics."

Read's position in February made him a lightning rod on Oregon's political left, just weeks after he'd started as treasurer.

"We've been hard on Tobias," said Doug Moore, executive director of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.

The organization rallied supporters into action through its email distribution list comprising about 60,000 Oregonians.

Moore said that group was encouraged "multiple times" to contact Read and share views on the forest and his February stance.

The Elliott became a salient issue for many Oregonians. "The intensity that this is felt within our community and within our membership has been really shocking," Moore said.

"People have very, very strong opinions about this."

Though it's accurate to say Read was open to finding solutions other than selling, Moore said, the treasurer's depiction of Tuesday's announcement as not being a new policy position was "irritatingly precise."

When asked if the pressure from activists had an impact on his statement, Moore said, "I hope so, I think so."

Oregon Wild sent a victory note to its 20,000 supporters Tuesday afternoon, thanking them for emailing, calling and lobbying Read. The email is titled, "You changed the course on the Elliott."

The group said Read deserves to be thanked, but more work remains. "We must now redouble our efforts, and urge Read, Governor Brown, and members of the Oregon Legislature to act quickly on a solution that keeps the Elliott public and protects it's priceless old-growth forests," they wrote.

The Oregon League of Conservation Voters celebrated Read two years ago as "Innovator of the Year," after the then-representative from Beaverton introduced legislation that would have given the state a mechanism to transfer lands that are not profitable from one agency to another, without having to sell off the land wholesale. That bill did not advance.

A similar bill, introduced by Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, had a legislative hearing last week.

Read said he made his announcement on the Elliott this week, more than a month ahead of the next State Land Board meeting, to give lawmakers and other stakeholders "the space for those conversations" about how to keep the forest in public hands.

"Two years of public testimony has made clear the public's desire to see both a 'decoupling' of the Elliott from its Common School Fund obligations to maximize revenue, as well as the continued public ownership of the Elliott," Read said in a statement on his website. "I believe that there is now a path forward that can effectively accomplish both of those objectives."

Read said he had talked to both Lone Rock and the Cow Creek tribe.

"They're disappointed, and I understand that," he said.

He pointed out the unique partnership of the timber company and tribe were the only bidders who stepped forward and responded to the state's request for proposals last year.

"We owe them our thanks and gratitude," he said in the statement."

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen