Elliott State Forest won't be put up for sale

A view of the Elliott State Forest.

(Tony Andersen/Oregon Dept. of Foresty)

The Elliott State Forest took another big step toward being sold Tuesday.

Gov. Kate Brown had made a last-minute proposal to maintain public ownership of the 82,500-acre forest in the Coast Range northeast of Coos Bay. But Oregon's newly elected treasurer and secretary of state broke their silence about the forest's future, opposing Brown at a meeting of the three-member State Land Board.

State Treasurer Tobias Read, a Democrat, and Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, a Republican, both supported the ongoing effort to privatize the land and sell it to a logging company, which bid in conjunction with several Native American tribes and The Conservation Fund.

If a sale agreement is finalized, Oregonians will get $221 million in return and an assurance that half of their forest will be kept open to public access.

Tobias Read

Read said the proposal to sell the land to Lone Rock Timber Management wasn't perfect, but was the state's best option.

"I can't simply cast it aside," Read said. "I think it is the best and most realistic proposal we have in front of us."

The statement from Read sent a Tuesday meeting of the three state leaders into chaos. The governor called a five-minute recess that dragged on 10 minutes, then 20, then 30. Brown, Read and Richardson, who comprise the State Land Board and have the authority to sell the land, shuffled behind closed doors to talk with attorneys and advisers.

More than 40 minutes later, the state's top three elected leaders resumed the public meeting, with Read proposing amendments to the current plan to sell the land - including an option to buy back $25 million of the acreage for use as a possible state park. He also added a requirement to log the land under restrictive Forest Stewardship Council standards.

Richardson said he thought the sale was a bad deal, the price too low. But the state has an obligation to make good on its commitments, he said.

"It's not Champoeg. It's not Yellowstone. It's not Yosemite," he said, noting that the land was held in trust to fund education. Oregon is constitutionally required to make money off the Elliott.

All three land board members received campaign contributions from the group bidding on the forest. Richardson's election campaign received $11,000 from Lone Rock and a $10,000 donation in December, after he won, from the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, a partner in the consortium that would buy it. Read got $3,000 from Lone Rock and its CEO. Brown has gotten $5,000 from Lone Rock and $60,000 from the Cow Creek Band.

The Elliott's sale is driven by the complicated way that Oregon manages some public land. The Elliott is held in trust by Oregon's Common School Fund, which has used revenue from logging the land to pay for public education. That revenue plunged in 2012 amid environmental lawsuits and the land's management began to cost the state.

The plan to sell the forest was set in motion months ago. But with newly elected leaders (Richardson and Read) in office, Brown had made a pitch to halt the sale.

The governor had called for a $100 million bond payment to the state's Common School Fund, which holds the land in trust. That payment would be used to withdraw the forest's steep slopes, old growth stands and riparian areas from the school fund trust. The state would've drafted a blueprint, segregating logging land from valuable habitat.

"It is clear to me that it is in the best interest of Oregonians to ensure public ownership of the Elliott State Forest," Brown told the assembled crowd in Salem. "The importance of state-owned lands has increased as the future of federal public lands has come into question."

Across the West, Republican lawmakers have targeted public land sales as a way to reduce what they see as overreaching federal control. What's remarkable about the Elliott sale is that it was a Democrat, Read, who cast the deciding vote to allow the state to sell the land for nearly $140 million less than the state believed it was worth.

Immediately after the vote Tuesday, a clearly angry Brown directed the state lands director, Jim Paul, to present a public ownership option in April. Richardson made a motion attempting to override her; Read did not second it.

The mixed signals from Read, the new state treasurer, left observers stymied and drew an immediate outcry from environmental groups who said they were shocked by the Democrat's support of privatizing public land.

"Today's vote underscores that when it comes to timber interests and public lands, Oregon Democrats are willing to look the other way," said Sean Stevens, executive director of Oregon Wild. He said his organization "will be working diligently to remind Oregonians of Treasurer Tobias Read's vote to sell off the Elliott State Forest."

Jim Green, executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association, applauded the decision. "Treasurer Read's action in making sure the sale of the Elliott can move forward is encouraging, and we greatly appreciate his efforts," Green said.

The forest's fate is not yet sealed. Senate President Peter Courtney told the lawmakers he was willing to help keep the land publicly owned.

The land board meets again in April to consider the Elliott's fate.

-- Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657

@robwdavis