Department of State Lands will provide options before the board offloads the forest.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
The Oregon State Land Board wants to weigh its options before offloading the Elliott State Forest.
The State Land Board will provide guidelines in a meeting Thursday.
Question 1: What is the state’s goal in transferring ownership of Elliott State Forest?
A: Oregon officials want to get the Elliott out of the Common School Fund (see more here). The state’s costs to manage the forest have outstripped its receipts from selling timber from the Elliott in recent years – to the tune of $5 million since 2013. And the state is caught in a tough legal spot: trying to maximize timber sales to support public education while still meeting environmental protection standards. Selling or transferring the forest’s ownership would theoretically relieve this burden and generate an immediate pot of money for education.
(SOURCE: OPB)
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