The 320-acre plot of land known as 'Pipe Fork' was going to be purchased by the local conservation group Williams Community Forest Project, and subsequently sold to the federal Bureau of Land Management. The non-profit was going to use a little over $2 million from the Conservation Fund, along with $300,000 of community-raised funds.
But county commissioners backed out of that deal in July, saying they didn鈥檛 get promises from the BLM that the land would be publicly accessible and wouldn鈥檛 be logged. The non-profit says that a portion of the Pipe Fork land would been have incorporated into an adjacent Research Natural Area and conserved.
The pamphlet from the real estate company advertising the auction explicitly markets the land for logging.
"Acquisition of the 1,800 acre Josephine County Timberland Portfolio in either its entirety, or by individual tract or combination of tracts, is rare investment opportunity to obtain GreenGold timberland having primarily well-stocked 50 to 70 year old Douglas-fir which provides near-term cash flow in Southern Oregon鈥檚 competitive log market," reads the auction pamphlet.
鈥淪o you have to re-look at why they refused the sale in the first place, now what they're planning on doing, it makes no sense," said Cheryl Bruner, secretary for the Williams Community Forest Project.
Bruner said they're disappointed in the commissioner's decision to put the land up for auction instead. Neither Commissioner John West nor Herman Baertschiger responded to requests for an interview.
The community forest project still wants to keep the land out of the hands of timber companies.
鈥淲e want people who want to conserve the land to bid on the land," Bruner said. "And we're having a meeting on October 24 for the community to appraise them of what is happening and gain their support.鈥�
The minimum bid price for the land is almost twice what the non-profit originally offered, but that鈥檚 because it鈥檚 being bundled with another 280-acre tract of forestland nearby called Thompson Creek. Bruner said they're trying to put together enough funding to make a bid on the land before the November 14 auction.
