The yearslong saga over the fate of Oregon鈥檚 Elliott State Forest may soon come to a close.
During this year鈥檚 short legislative session, Oregon state lawmakers are considering a to convert the 91,000-acre forest in Douglas and Coos counties into a 鈥渓iving laboratory鈥� to study forest management, habitat conservation, carbon sequestration and more. The plan also allows some logging.
It鈥檚 the product of years of negotiations by a wide variety of including conservation groups, timber operators, Native American tribes and Oregon State University. The bill appears to have , which is made up of Gov. Kate Brown, Treasurer Tobias Read and Secretary of State Shemia Fagan.
鈥淚t shows that Oregonians can come together, they can work around a common vision, they can disagree passionately about details, but they can still figure out a way to compromise and reach an outcome that represents a real win for Oregon,鈥� Read said at a on the bill before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire Recovery.
The bill before lawmakers now is the latest iteration of an idea to create the Elliott State Research Forest.
It establishes a or the Oregon State Fair to own and administer the forest. Such entities have some of the flexibility of private companies while still adhering to public accountability measures such as state public records laws.
Oregon State University would manage the forest and lead the research operation.
鈥淎 world-class research forest like the Elliott will be another asset in how we adapt to this rapidly changing environment,鈥� Fagan told lawmakers.
would protect most of the oldest forest 鈥� about 93% 鈥� which is critical for species such as the and . Safeguards for coho salmon will also be baked into the plan.
Portland Audubon conservation director Bob Sallinger said that currently about half of the trees in the Elliott State Forest are around 65 years old. If the research forest plan goes forward, about 70% of the trees will be closer to 100 years old.
鈥淭hose are really strong conservation wins,鈥� said Sallinger, who serves on the advisory committee that helped craft the plan. 鈥淎nd they鈥檝e been an incredibly long time coming.鈥�
The plan allows selective timber harvest on the Elliott, as well as some clear-cutting and cutting of older trees.
鈥淭his process hasn鈥檛 been easy. It hasn鈥檛 always been fun,鈥� Paul Beck with Douglas Timber Operators told the Senate committee. 鈥淲e were all passionate, but, thankfully, through the process we were all open, honest and frank.鈥�
Oregon and linked it to the Common School Fund. Money generated from logging the forest helped fund public education.
However, as , especially around sensitive habitat for owls and murrelets, the Elliott could no longer generate enough money to pay what it owed public schools. Since 2018, the Elliott State Forest has and actually drained more than a million dollars per year from the fund in management expenses.
The bill before the Legislature would sever the tie between the forest and the Common School Fund. That would eliminate the Elliott鈥檚 ongoing financial obligation to schools but would also require the state to compensate the fund for the full value of the forest, which is about $221 million, according to the most recent appraisal. The state has about $121 million left to pay, .
Rep. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, said he鈥檚 鈥渁ll in鈥� in support of the bill, but wants to make sure the forest in his district can pay for itself through timber harvesting before the Land Board votes to decouple it from the Common School Fund.
鈥淚 just want to make sure that all those boxes are checked before we do the end and final piece of the decoupling,鈥� Brock Smith said.
Paying off the forest鈥檚 obligation to the Common School Fund will require a separate funding request from the governor. The Elliott advisory committee is also in the process of developing and seeking approval for a habitat conservation plan with federal regulators, and writing a forest management plan.
鈥淲e would not be supporting [the bill] if we had any questions about the viability of what we鈥檙e talking about at this point and that all of these pieces would be secured before it actually does advance,鈥� Sallinger said.
If passed and signed by the governor, the law would take effect 91 days after the end of the legislative session.
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