Deal appears close for new state forest near Gilchrist

SALEM — State officials, with the help of a nonprofit land organization, have all but completed a deal for 68,000 acres near Gilchrist for the first new state forest in decades.

“I think we're at the close of the negotiation phase of the deal,” said Doug Decker, a project manager for the Oregon Department of Forestry who spearheaded the project. “It is exciting. It is a big deal for Oregon and certainly the first major state forest acquisition in more than 70 years.”

The state has scheduled a bond sale for today, which includes $15 million approved by the Legislature for the land purchase — a priority for Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Because the state's funding is only enough to purchase 43,000 acres, The Conservation Fund, a Virginia-based nonprofit, has agreed to buy the remaining 25,000 acres. The Conservation Fund will sell its portion of the land to the state over the next five years, Decker said.

While the price and acreage are set, there are several more steps to go through to close the deal, state officials said. A Dec. 21 public hearing has been scheduled in Klamath Falls, and the state will consult with the Klamath County Board of Commissioners in February. The purchase is expected to be finalized in early March.

Similarly, The Conservation Fund has a few more steps before its end of the deal will be closed, said Evan Smith, the group's vice president in charge of forestland acquisition and finance.

“Right now, we have an agreement on price and timing and everything else,” he said. “We're excited to be through this step, but it's still one of many that remain.”

He declined to discuss the terms of the nonprofit's end of the deal.

The Gilchrist tract is part of a larger swath of private timberland that was purchased from the Gilchrist family in the 1990s by Crown Pacific Partners, a company that state officials say over-logged the land.

The current landowner, Cascade Timberlands, is largely owned by Montana-based Fidelity National Timber Resources. Fidelity negotiated the deal with the state.

State officials say they hope to nurse the forestland back to health so it can produce timber sale revenue for the state. However, that is expected to take decades.

The Gilchrist purchase is different from another purchase involving Fidelity, a parcel called Skyline Forest west of Bend. Skyline would be purchased by the Deschutes Land Trust and operated as a nonprofit. Gilchrist, meanwhile, would be a government-owned forest, selling timber to support counties and schools.

Learn more about the Gilchrist project.