Land board votes to sell Oregon’s oldest public forest

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon’s state Land Board voted 2-1 Tuesday to sell the state’s oldest public forest.

Gov. Kate Brown, the board chair, clashed with its sole Republican member as she attempted to keep the preserve in public hands and at least delayed the sale.

Brown voted against the proposal and Secretary of State Dennis Richardson and State Treasurer Tobias Read said yes to selling the 82,500-acre forest to a logging firm and a tribal partner. Brown then ordered the director of the Department of State Lands to consider a public ownership plan and to present it at the next state land board meeting in April.

“Point of order,” Richardson, a Republican who holds the second-highest position in the state, told Brown. “I move to override the direction you just gave to the director because it’s contrary to the motion the land board just passed.”

“It is not contrary to the land board motion that just passed,” Brown replied in a packed room.

Richardson insisted on making the motion to override Brown’s order, but Read, a Democrat, stayed silent. With the motion having failed, Brown concluded the meeting with a bang of the gavel.

There was only one bidder for the forest near Coos Bay whose price was set at $221 million: Lone Rock timber company, which would own 87 percent with its tribal partner, the Cow Creek band of Umpqua, owning the remaining 13 percent.