CONSERVATIONISTS SEEK
SOLUTIONS TO SALE OF
ELLIOTT STATE FOREST LAND
Can small sea birds save a forest? Conservation groups
like Cascadia Wildlands hope so. Next month the State
Land Board decides whether or not to dispose of three par-
cels of the Elliott State Forest by selling to private buyers,
which include interested parties from the timber industry.
In a Nov. 10 letter, Cascadia Wildlands and other conser-
vation groups asked the State Land Board, which includes
Gov. John Kitzhaber, Secretary of State Kate Brown and
Treasurer Ted Wheeler, to reject the proposal to sell 2,714
acres of Oregon forestland and wildlife habitat in Coos and
Douglas counties.
In August, surveyors discovered marbled murrelets, a
species of federally and state-protected sea bird that nests
in coastal forests, on the largest of the three parcels (see
EW’s coverage at wkly.ws/1mj). Money from the land sale
would go to the Common School Fund, helping to bolster
‘We’re losing money on
the management of the
Elliott State Forest to
the tune of about $2
million a year.’
sell these lands to private industry
fl agging public schools, but Cas-
because the same liability the state
cadia Wildlands campaign direc-
was facing would now be assumed
tor Josh Laughlin says that the
by private industry, which is all the
State Land Board can still fund
more reason to see these lands con-
public education by using long-
served for the values they provide to
term revenue from conserving
Oregonians,” Laughlin says.
the land instead of logging it.
State Land Board asset analyst
With the discovery of marbled
Clara
Taylor says that after conserva-
murrelet activity in the Adams
C LA R A TAYLO R ,
tion groups fi led a lawsuit that halted
Ridge parcel, the assessed value
STATE LAND BOA R D A S S E T A N A LY S T
timber land sales last year, the state
of the land plummeted. Accord-
cannot afford to continue managing the land. “We’re losing
ing to timber appraisal reports, the Adams Ridge parcel
money on the management of the Elliott State Forest to the
under private ownership had an estimated timber market
tune of about $2 million a year,” she says. “We just cannot
value of $13.4 million, but under the Endangered Species
lose money on land that is supposed to be providing money
Act, the presence of the murrelets limits habitat destruction
for the school fund.”
through logging, causing the value to fall to $1.7 million,
The deadline for public comments on the land sale has
greatly reducing projected revenue.
passed, but Lorna Stafford, secretary for the Land Board,
A Nov. 19 revision to the report found that the murrelet-
says that the Dec. 10 meeting will include a public com-
occupied site was even greater than originally stated, span-
ment period. Cascadia Wildlands is also staging a rally
ning a continuous 240 acres.
at the meeting to show support for conservation efforts.
“The state knows there’s murrelet activity in this Ad-
— Amy Schneider
ams tract, and the state can’t pass the buck and knowingly
th
v. 29
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