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The Elliott State Forest, a point of contention between environmentalists and the state, is now the subject of two bills in the Oregon Legislature.

(Oregon Department of Forestry)

Two competing bills in the Oregon Legislature aim to set very different courses for the Elliott State Forest: log more, or leave it alone.

The 92,000-acre Elliott is among 780,000 acres of Oregon trust lands, designated in the state Constitution as moneymakers for K-12 schools. Historically, the Department of State Lands has sold timber leases in the Elliott to make money, but a series of legal challenges over the threatened marbled murrelet seabird steeply curbed timber cutting there.

Instead of making money off the forest, the state began spending money to manage unloggable land.

Since then, state officials have been scrambling to end the financial bleed. They considered auctioning the Elliott off to the highest bidder, or finding a way to increase logging, before the State Land Board in December leaned toward a plan to sell the land to a public or public-private entity, putting the proceeds toward education.

Two leading options emerged: A group of interested parties - say a timber company, a nonprofit and a local government - could team up to buy and manage the land, or the state could transfer it to another public agency at full market value through a so-called trust land transfer.

House Bill 3474, sponsored by Rep Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, would create a framework for pursuing the second option.

Read's bill would create a commission charged with advising the State Land Board on ways to transfer trust lands to other government agencies that would manage them for conservation and public access. It would also set up a fund to pay for the land sales.

Pursuing such an option for the Elliott would absolve the state of its onus to cut trees for profit.

"Our structure has created this false choice between protecting the environment and generating returns for education," Read said. "We have the potential to bust the myth that the economy and the environment are always in conflict."

Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, wants the Department of State Lands to keep the Elliott. His Senate Bill 806 would require the department to cut enough timber to generate $40 million in revenue each year. Ferrioli hails his bill as a way to create jobs in the timber industry while boosting school funding.

"Timber harvests from the Elliott Forest have been steadily declining over the past two decades, taking money away from Oregon schools," he said in an email Tuesday.

Both bills sit in committee.

Ferrioli's could struggle to gain traction, given that Democrats control the Legislature, the State Land Board is leaning toward a sale and legal restrictions prevent the state from logging much of the Elliott.

Read said he is "confident" about his bill, which has support from a coalition of environmental and outdoor sports groups who hope to see the Elliott become a state park or Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife conservation area.

State parks and wildlife spokespeople said their agencies have not been approached about taking the Elliott.

Although Read's bill was crafted with the Elliott in mind, it would apply to all of the state's trust lands.

If it passes, the bill could result in a system like one in Washington, where the state Legislature sets aside state general fund money each year to buy controversial, environmentally sensitive and otherwise unloggable trust lands. The Washington Department of Natural Resources then transfers the lands to an agency charged with managing it as recreation land, wildlife habitat or open space.

Since its inception in 1989, Washington has conserved 117,000 acres under the program, Department of Natural Resources spokesman Bob Redling said.

Read's bill includes an unspecified amount of state general fund money to launch the commission in 2015, but does not identify a permanent funding source to pay for land transfers.

"There are a variety of possibilities, and that's the kind of thing we're working on now," he said.

The State Land Board will discuss the Elliott State Forest at a June 9 meeting. Department of State Lands spokeswoman Julie Curtis said for now, the trust land transfer option is just one of several under consideration.

Support for the other leading option, known as a community forest solution, has fizzled amid revelations that the its main backer, Tom Tuchmann, was advising former Gov. John Kitzhaber on forestry issues while his private consulting firm crafted a deal to buy the Elliott and log part of it while keeping the rest for recreation.

"Because of his involvement in it, people are a little leery," said Tom Wolf, executive director of the Oregon council of Trout Unlimited.

A land trust option wouldn't necessarily end all logging in the Elliott. About half of the Elliott consists of even-aged tree farms planted after clear-cuts decades ago. Cascadia Wildlands director Josh Laughlin said his group would support "restorative thinning" in those areas.

"There's a lot of restoration potential that would require a significant workforce in the Elliott, and that's something we'd like to see as a component to a complete solution," he said.

-- Kelly House