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The Oregon Land Board late Friday afternoon sent out an email seeking buyers for a prime asset: the 91,000 acre Elliott State Forest.
"The State Land Board has asked potential public owners of the Elliott State Forest to indicate their interest to the Department of State Lands, and to come before the Land Board at its December 18, 2018 meeting," the email said. "For purposes of finding a new owner, 'public' means state or federal government agencies, federally-recognized Oregon tribes, state universities, and local governments."
If this all sounds familiar, that's because the state only last year aborted an earlier attempt to sell the forest, a process that ended with a jilted purchaser suing the state in ongoing litigation.
Related: We Journeyed Deep Inside the Elliott State Forest, Before It Is Lost.
In 2016, the Land Board first decided to sell the forest, which is located just northeast of Coos Bay.
The issue was cash flow: 82,500 acres of the forest are managed for the financial benefit of the Common School Fund and, since 2012, the value of the timber harvested from the property has regularly failed to exceed the cost of administration. In other words, it's a valuable asset that doesn't produce any money for the state's nearly 600,000 K-12 students.
The state commissioned an appraisal and sought bids. A consortium of Lone Rock Timber Management company and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians entered the high bid and appeared to have struck a deal to buy the forest for $220.8 million. That generated outrage from environmental groups who said the state was selling an irreplaceable asset at a bargain price.
In 2017, newly elected Secretary of State Dennis Richardson and Treasurer Tobias Read replaced former Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins and former Treasurer Ted Wheeler. Under heavy pressure, the new board reversed the decision to sell, leading Lone Rock to sue the state in Marion County Circuit Court.
That lawsuit continues.
In the meantime, the Land Board hired a consultant to survey dozens of interested parties to see what should be done with the forest.
The resulting report has informed the Land Board's direction. The board wants to keep the forest in public ownership, with public access; wants to "decouple" the forest from the Common School Fund to relieve harvest pressure, while also compensating the Common School Fund for the value of the forest; wants to continue some level of harvest; and wants to do all of this in cooperation with five Native American tribes that have some connection to the Elliott.
The consultant's report acknowledges there are not many public agencies who are logical buyers of the forest.
Buyers who do have an interest are supposed to get in touch with Land Board Director Vicki Walker by Dec. 5. The Land Board will then take up the issue publicly at its next meeting, on Dec. 18.