SALEM, Ore. — It's taken several years and a lot of negotiating, but a deal has been reached to keep Elliott State Forest in public ownership and preserve it for future generations. The 91,000-acre forest is located east of Coos Bay in southwest Oregon.
A state senate bill signed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown will transition the Elliott into a research forest, but will also allow some logging.
The Elliott State Forest is full of old growth trees and is a habitat for several endangered species. Since 1930, timber sales from the forest were part of funding K-12 education in Oregon.
With Senate Bill 1546, ceremonially signed by Governor Kate Brown this week, the state will pay more than $200 million to the common school fund — and in exchange, the forest will no longer be counted on to financially support public schools.
"Some thought the Elliot forest would not be able to contribute to the future of Oregon's education system," Governor Brown said at the ceremonial signing in Salem, "but through this decoupling effort the full value of the Elliott forest will be there for Oregon school children for decades to come."
It was a heavy lift for a lot of the people who attended the Salem ceremony. A number of competing interests came together over the past three years to create a comprehensive plan for the forest.
"A research forest with the scale and diversity of the Elliott is unique in the United States and it's rare in the world," said Ed Feser, Oregon State University provost and executive vice president.
At the heart of the agreement is OSU's management of Elliott as a research forest. The vast majority of old growth timber is now protected, along with the creatures that live there.
"It's not a good system to connect school funding to rare species habitat ... so that was the main tension, and I think we made it through," said Bob Van Dyk with the Wild Salmon Center.
"For us it was always about protecting the older forest and the imperiled species — marbled murrelet, spotted owls and coho [salmon] and I think we came out with a solution that really does that," said Bob Sallinger with the Portland Audubon Society.
The plan also allows for more public access for recreation and education. And timber interests are not completely out of the picture, thanks to the compromise.
"What the industry and communities in southwest Oregon will get out of this is we will get some harvest," said Paul Beck with Douglass Timber Operators. "We will get a steady flow 15 to 17 million feet annually."
The process wasn't quick or easy, but stakeholders seem to be in agreement that it successfully preserves Oregon's first state forest.