Active vs. passive management
The basic assumption behind both the Elliott State Research Forest Authority and the proposed "research" to be done is that passive management makes more sense and is better for the environment than active management.
"Leaving forests to nature," or passive management, makes sense to many environmental organizations, but passive management leads to storing more and more flammable carbon in a forest until inevitably it will burn in a massive fire — just as the Elliott State Forest has done before. While it is true that humans have caused many environmental problems on this planet, the answers will not come from slapping a veneer of "scientific research" on top of a political agenda created by environmentalists.
When you mix science and politics, you get politics. — Historian John Barry
In contrast, active management assumes experienced foresters can manage a forest to grow and harvest trees, keep rural people productively employed, and protect the environment. Perhaps the best place to learn about active management is the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.
Sadly, none of the research proposed for the Elliott State Research Forest will be managed according to active management principles. The small part of the forest scheduled to be managed in an "Intensive" manner will have an average rotation age of 60 years — much longer than forests being actively managed in the private sector. As a result, the entire research design for the Elliott State Research Forest lacks an appropriate scientific control because none of the forest will be managed in a similar way to Oregon's well-cared-for and highly productive private forests.
The scariest part of this entire process comes from understanding that the folks behind this effort intend to use the resulting "research" to force new passive-management rules on Oregon's private forestry. So not only will most of the Elliott State Forest be converted into a de facto wilderness area under the pretense of conducting scientific research, but this process is also intended to become a model for all of Oregon's private forests.
Two quotes from the Forest Management Plan capture this vision:
"Our vision is to establish a publicly owned, long-term research forest aimed at exploring and finding innovative solutions to meet human demands for wood products, adapt to climate change through carbon sequestration, support a diversity of life, invest in local economies, and promote inclusive sustainability."
— Page 5, Executive Summary, Forest Management Plan
"SB 1546 stipulates development of a plan that explains how ESRF forest land will be managed to sustain its diverse values, address fundamental/foundational research questions regarding working forests, and achieve the specific ecosystem good and service outcomes envisioned for it."
— Page 8, Introduction, Forest Management Plan
If the previous paragraphs do not seem convincing, consider this rule about how the Elliott State Research Forest Authority will operate. Page 84 of the Forest Management Plan says the plan will "suppress all fires but no salvage if mortality occurs." This approach guarantees that after the forest burns once, it will burn again and again because it will be filled with dry snags instead of live tree trunks full of water.
Lessons from the 1902–1929 Yacolt Fires, 1933–1951 Six-Year Jinx Tillamook Fires, and the 1987–2018 Kalmiopsis Wilderness Fires are clear: unless removed, the dead trees from an initial forest fire will fuel even greater and more severe subsequent fires.
Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up. — Historian Ronald Wright
Political process — 2009 to 2022
- 2009–2014
- Activist environmental groups stage numerous protests to illegally block logging, and they and other environmental groups file lawsuits, so the State Land Board agrees to shut down all harvest activities on the Elliott State Forest — even commercial harvesting of mushrooms and huckleberries has been stopped.
- 2016
- The State Land Board tries to sell the Elliott State Forest for $220.8 million, and that attempted sale was reversed by the State Land Board when Lone Rock, a timber company, put in a bid to buy it.
- 2017
- The Oregon Department of Forestry was fired from managing the Elliott and the Department of State Lands (DSL) assumed direct responsibility. The DSL's only forester for the Elliott State Forest also oversaw many other DSL properties. He worked out of the Bend DSL office, a four-and-a-half-hour drive from the Elliott, but that was OK because he was told not to allow any commercial harvesting.
- 2017
- The State Land Board decides to try giving the Elliott State Forest to OSU by selling bonds that taxpayers will have to repay and depositing the proceeds in the Common School Fund.
- 2017–2022
- OSU professors write a research forest plan with input from habitat consultants, wildlife biologists, government regulators, environmental lawyers, and outdoor and conservation interest groups. All these people are well paid (the plans cost the Common School Fund over $2,000,000) and well insulated from the effects of completely shutting down the Elliott State Forest. The various advisory councils exclude actual forest managers or industrial forestland owners.
- 2020
- OSU decides it is unwilling to own the Elliott State Forest — even if it is given to OSU for free — because the harvest and management rules being written by the Elliott State Forest Advisory Committee are so onerous that financial projections show the research forest will lose $2.1 million each year. Their proposal also says OSU will need $34.8 million in start-up and working capital.
- March 2022
- The Oregon Legislature passes Senate Bill 1546, "An act relating to the Elliott State Research Forest." Since its passage, the State Land Board has been working to fulfill SB 1546's requirements so the Elliott State Forest can be sold from the School Trust Lands and can be owned and managed by a new agency, the Elliott State Research Forest Authority.
- December 2022
- In a State Land Board meeting, the Board decides to sell the Elliott State Forest from the School Trust Lands in a self-dealing transaction. It sets the sales price at $221 million — less than one-quarter of the forest's market value — without paying for a market-value appraisal.
A biased advisory committee
In April 2019, the Department of State Lands (DSL) held the first meeting of the Elliott State Research Forest Advisory Committee (ESRFAC) to provide insight and input on the research forest idea. This committee's purpose was to write the rules Oregon State University would have to follow for the new Elliott State Research Forest. DSL said the committee's membership "represents a variety of perspectives on the forest."
Many environmental organizations — such as the Oregon Outdoor Council, Nature Conservancy, Oregon Hunters Society, Audubon Society, and Wild Salmon Center — had representatives on the Advisory Committee's membership roster.
Who was excluded? Nearly everyone with an interest in active forest management. No one from the Oregon Department of Forestry was on the committee, even though ODF has the deepest institutional expertise in managing the Elliott. Industrial forestland owners and active forest managers were also excluded. The result: a predetermined outcome, paid for by the Common School Fund.
A worrisome conclusion
The OSU research proposal would attempt to store the most carbon on the forest's west edge near the coastal towns of Reedsport, Winchester Bay, Lakeside, Hauser, Glasgow, Allegany, and North Bend. All of Oregon's worst catastrophic fires of the past century have moved west toward the coast, driven by east-wind events. Storing flammable biomass at that geographic boundary places those communities directly downwind of any future ignition.
Source documents
- ESRF Draft Proposal (Nov. 10, 2020) — PDF
- Final ESRF/OSU Proposal (Dec. 1, 2020) — PDF
- Phillips, The Elliott State Forest, Its History and Times — PDF
← Oregon (state dossier) · Oregon trust-lands history → · Oregon's current case →
Source: Oregon Advocates for School Trust Lands. Migrated and edited from oastl.org/research.
