State should talk to forest neighbors

A Bend Bulletin editorial about Skyline Forest.

Ever since the notion of a community forest on the old Bull Springs Tree Farm was introduced, one element has remained constant. The parties involved, led by the Deschutes Land Trust, have bent over backward to keep the public a part of the deal. The state must keep that in mind as the proposal takes another turn.

Under the new proposal, the state would broker the sales of about 400 square miles of Central Oregon forestland in a way that would, ideally, serve the state and everyone in it well. The land, the old Crown Pacific holdings in the region, currently is owned by Fidelity National Financial Inc., and includes the Bull Springs Tree Farm land west of Tumalo.

If the state, Fidelity and other parties reach an agreement that looks like what’s being discussed today, the land trust would get most of the Bull Springs property for the Skyline Forest.

The state would pick up most of the property near Gilchrist and Crescent, which, when it was owned by the Gilchrist family, was among the best managed forests in the country. After it left Gilchrist hands, it was so aggressively logged that it will take years to recover — something the state Department of Forestry would do in the state’s newest forest. A final chunk near Crater Lake would go to the Klamath tribes. Less than 11,000 acres of the more than 250,000 acres being discussed would be set aside for development by Fidelity, about half of it in the Bull Springs property.

There are clear benefits to the package as a whole, among them keeping forestland forested and giving Indians land they sorely need. Put in place, it would protect land that otherwise would be developed piecemeal over time. But it’s not the sort of thing that should be crammed down neighbors’ throats. Rather, the state should take the approach that’s been used so far in coming up with a plan for the Bull Springs property.

That approach is simple. Do everything you can to assure that your neighbors know what’s going on. Hold meetings, send letters, invite them to tell you what they think. Don’t just do that once; do it over and over again. Make sure that only the most isolated hermit can say, when all is said and done, that he didn’t know what was planned and wasn’t consulted about the change.

Change, particularly change we don’t understand, makes most of us uncomfortable. The state can do much to forestall that discomfort by talking and listening to its potential new neighbors.