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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017
Elliott Forest sale moves ahead
over Gov. Brown’s objection
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — At odds
with the governor, the Ore-
gon treasurer and secre-
tary of state voted Tuesday
to go ahead with a plan to
sell a hotly debated swath of
coastal forest to a partnership
between a timber company
and a Native American tribe
— albeit with some changes.
At issue is the sale of an
approximately 80,000-acre
parcel of the Elliott State
Forest in Coos and Doug-
las counties. Environmental
groups have fought for keep-
ing the land in public hands.
The State Land Board —
the governor, treasurer and
secretary of state — over-
sees certain state-owned
lands. Treasurer Tobias
Read and Secretary of State
Dennis Richardson endorsed
moving forward with the
sale over Gov. Kate Brown’s
objection.
Read
proposed
an
amended version of the
original sale protocol that
he says includes “enhanced
recreation and conservation
measures.”
Brown, over Richard-
son’s objections, directed
the state lands department to
come up with a proposal for
public ownership of the for-
est. The department reports
to Brown.
Complex issue
The sale of the Elliott
is a complex issue, in part
because the land in ques-
tion is essentially a trust
— the state must collect
money from harvesting tim-
ber or other activities for
the state’s Common School
Fund and the land board is
the fiduciary of that fund.
In 2015, the land board
— then comprised of Brown,
then-Treasurer Ted Wheeler
and then-Secretary of State
Jeanne Atkins, all Demo-
crats — voted to go ahead
with a multistep sale proto-
col that included an assess-
ment of the land’s value and
a set of criteria for the sale.
Over a year later, only
one group, a timber com-
pany out of Roseburg called
Lone Rock Resources — in
partnership with the Cow
Creek Band of Umpqua
Tribe of Indians — submit-
ted a proposal for acquiring
the forest. The Confeder-
ated Tribes of Coos, Lower
Umpqua and Siuslaw Indi-
ans would, under that pro-
posal, hold a conservation
easement.
In light of the tribes’
involvement, the sale of
the Elliott also now raises
questions about the govern-
ment’s duty to “right some
historic wrongs,” in the
words of Treasurer Read.
Native Americans were sys-
tematically removed from
their ancestral lands as the
United States and Oregon
took shape — a truth espe-
cially poignant on the state’s
158th birthday Tuesday.
Governor’s concerns
Brown said the require-
ments for the sale were too
stringent.
The state set the price at
$220.8 million, and required
bidders to have detailed
plans for employment on the
forest and maintaining cer-
tain features, such as old for-
est stands and riparian areas.
Several public agencies had
expressed interest in the
property, but none ended up
submitting an acquisition
proposal.
Brown wants not only
to keep the land public,
but decouple some or all
the land from the Common
School Fund.
Brown wants to use $100
million of the state’s bond-
ing capacity to purchase
especially sensitive habitat
areas in the forest, such as
steep slopes. She also wants
to negotiate a new habitat
conservation plan with fed-
eral agencies on the rest of
the land, while also provid-
ing an opportunity for tribes
to exercise ownership.
Prior to the vote Tuesday,
state Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem, sug-
gested using revenue bonds
payable from revenues gen-
erated by the forest.
Courtney, although he
believes the land should stay
in public ownership, said he
wanted to help the board,
regardless of its decision.
Read, the state treasurer,
said he was reluctant to sell
the forest but felt that the
state had to meet its fidu-
ciary responsibilities first.
“I think it is the best and
most realistic proposal we
have in front of us,” Read
said of the protocol, before
proposing some changes.
Read’s amendments
The amendments Read
proposed include: allowing
the state to buy back up to
$25 million worth of acreage
in high-value areas; having
the department’s negotia-
tions include certain conser-
vation principles; clarifying
plans to protect old forest
stands; and include a right
of first refusal for the five
federally recognized Native
American tribes in western
Oregon, should any part of
the land be put up for sale
again after it is sold to the
LLC proposed by the Cow
Creek Band and Lone Rock.
Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian
Officer Teresa McKee (right) shakes Warrenton Mayor Mark Kujala’s hand after taking the
oath of office at Tuesday’s City Commission meeting. Deputy City Recorder Dawne Shaw
watches in the background.
Warrenton Police gain
new officer, sergeant
Veteran officers
improve force
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — The
Warrenton Police Department
has a new officer and a new
sergeant.
Police Chief Mathew
Workman announced the hir-
ing of Office Teresa McKee,
a former firefighter EMT and
Arizona state trooper, at Tues-
day’s City Commission meet-
ing, where McKee took the
oath of office.
McKee speaks Spanish,
worked as a paramedic and is a
drug recognition expert.
Officer Jim Pierce has been
promoted to sergeant, a posi-
tion called for in this fiscal
year’s budget.
Pierce is coming full-circle:
He was promoted to sergeant at
the Warrenton Police Depart-
ment in July 1988 before join-
ing Oregon State Police.
Both McKee and Pierce
tried out retirement before real-
izing they “couldn’t take it any-
Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian
Officer Jim Pierce, recently promoted to sergeant in the
Warrenton Police Department, takes a knee as his wife,
Debbie, and grandson, Alex Johnson, 4, pin a new badge
to Pierce’s uniform.
for public facilities, boosting
emergency preparedness mea-
sures, updating the Hammond
Marina master plan and con-
tinuing urban renewal projects.
•
Appointed
Dawn
DeLacey, an ambassador for
the Astoria-Warrenton Area
Chamber of Commerce, to
Position No. 7 on the War-
renton Community Library
Board.
more,” Workman said. McKee
has worked as a reserve officer
for the Clatsop County Sher-
iff’s Office, while Pierce has
served as a reserve officer for
the Astoria Police Department.
In other business, the City
Commission:
• Adopted goals for the next
fiscal year.
The goals include estab-
lishing maintenance programs
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