Though Skyline Forest lays buried under a heavy blanket of snow, the Land Trust continues working to protect as much of the 33,000 acre forest as possible. That means continuing our dialogue with Cascade Timberlands/Fidelity National Timber and, to preserve our options, the Land Trust recently applied to the Oregon Department of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service for the first phase of a $5 million Forest Legacy grant. If Skyline is donated to the Land Trust, the Forest Legacy funds could be utilized to permanently endow management of public recreation on the forest or if the property goes to auction, the funds would go toward a purchase. While preliminary indications are that the proposal ranked well nationally, we’ll be working closely with Oregon’s Congressional delegation to make sure the program funding is there when we need it.