Oregon Coast Alliance Newsletter
Protecting Public Lands and Waters
Creating New Public Lands: Protecting Clatsop County's "Coastal Edge"   
 
Onion Peak in Clatsop County. Courtesy ORCA
  
North Coast Land Conservancy (NCLC) has great news: they signed an agreement with Onion Peak holdings which will give the Conservancy the time to arrange financing to acquire 3,300 acres of land in the next five years. NCLC calls this area the "Coastal Edge," the region between Tillamook Head and Nehalem Bay, where mountain peaks rise steeply within a mile of the coastline. This creates a biologically diverse and unique ecosystem. 

Ultimately, the Conservancy plans to have the land be in local conservation-oriented ownership and management. Combined with  Oswald West  State Park and nearby Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, this project, if successful, will create a 29-square mile contiguous conservation corridor linking land and sea.

This agreement with Onion Peak Holdings is the first step. Much fundraising via grants and community participation will follow. For the interim while NCLC pursues funding, Ecotrust Forest Management will hold, steward and manage the Onion Peak properties. Stimson Lumber has owned them since 2004.

Anyone in the North Coast region -- or any other area -- interested in helping with funding, finance options or the project acquisition process, please contact the North Coast Land Conservancy. Contact options are here



Port of Newport Still Trying to Fund the Log Export Facility: Take Action by Dec. 9th!
 
Yaquina Bridge at Sunset. Courtesy Port of Newport  
  
Write to the U.S. Economic Development Administration by December 9th and urge them to deny funding for the Port of Newport's log export proposal.

The Port of Newport has been trying to build a log export facility in partnership with Teevin  Brothers  for several years now.  But the project is both expensive and controversial. The Port recently applied for yet another grant from ConnectOregon, this one for $4 million. The Port wanted to match a $2 million grant they already received from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation for the "international terminal shipping facility project." But ConnectOregon turned the application down. Perhaps they noticed that the number of export jobs created would not balance the loss of local manufacturing jobs in sawmilling, and would export Oregon forest products to China. Our forests need further protection in order to provide the all-important benefits of salmon and clean drinking water.  Yaquina Bay's ecology and productivity -- so important to the Newport economy of marine science and  tourism -- would also suffer from the industrial shipping traffic the facility would generate.

Spurned by ConnectOregon, the Port of Newport applied to the U.S. Economic Development Administration for a grant. EDA has already turned the Port down once. Their project review for this grant is December 9th. Please write to EDA and ask them to refuse funding for  this log export facility!  The Port is trying to find money to prop up a bad project that will not benefit Newport, the surrounding communities, the forests, clean water or salmon. EDA needs to hear  from people who can describe the losses the region  will suffer from this project.

Among the many problems, the log export facility has never  undergone  any comprehensive environmental or economic assessment, despite the damage it will do. This means it has never been evaluated against better alternatives.  It should certainly not be funded by taxpayer money .

Please write or email before December 9th to:

Shannon Fitzgerald
Regional Environmental Officer
U.S. Dept. of Commerce
Economic Development Administration

915 Second Ave., Room 1890
Seattle, WA 98174



Save the Elliott: Tell DSL by Dec. 13th Not to Sell Our Public Land  
    
Elliott State Forest. Courtesy DSL      
  
Write to the State Land Board (which governs the Department of State Lands) before December 13, and urge them not to sell off the 83,000-acre Elliott State Forest. The more DSL and the Land Board hear about the importance of the Elliott to Oregonians, the less likely they will sell this important state forest. Please  email to submit a comment. 

The Department of State Lands (DSL) has been trying to sell off the approximately 83,000-acre Elliott State Forest for more than two years now. DSL crafted a "transfer opportunity" with various protocols and asked for bids on the Forest. Since the State only valued the Forest at $220.8 million, it was thought that several "offers" for the purchase would come in. However, the transfer opportunity was quite complex, requiring the would-be purchaser to provide enhanced public recreation access, economic benefits by way of jobs, protection of older forest stands and riparian areas. In addition, the purchaser had to show DSL they had a valid enforcement mechanism  for maintaining these benefits.

DSL received only one offer for the purchase of the Elliott, from Roseburg-based Lone Rock Timber Company, in conjunction with the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw (CTLUSI). Lone Rock would have 87% of the equity in the purchase, with the remainder going to the Cow Creeks. In this very complex proposal, CTLUSI would be the conservation easement holder to protect public access, older forest stands and riparian areas. The Conservation Fund would be the conservation advisor to both CTLUSI and Lone Rock Timber in managing the Elliott has a private forest with some public benefits. 

There are many difficulties with the proposal and how it would work in practice.  But the fundamental problem is that the Elliott would be sold out of public ownership and no longer be a forest owned by, and for, the people of Oregon. Oregon Coast Alliance and many other groups are completely opposed to selling the Elliott under the Lone Rock proposal or any other plan. The State of Oregon has some work to do, to figure out how best to decouple the Elliott from the Common School Fund, so the unworkable requirement that the Elliott fund state schools via logging revenues no longer applies. The State must also revamp the Elliott's management priorities so they accord more with contemporary conservation values and laws.

The best thing DSL could do is hand this problem to the Legislature to craft an equitable solution -- perhaps a trustland transfer system, such as Washington has for dealing with similar situations.  But there  is no emergency here,  and certainly no  need to sell the Elliott. Please let the State Land Board know your opinion!



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