This is the second of three Public Lands Blog posts on state-owned forestlands in Oregon. Part 1 focused on a prospective habitat management plan for state forestlands in western Oregon. Part 2 surveys state forests in Oregon by location, owner, and manager. Part 3 will examine several key issues pertaining to state forest management in Oregon and explore how to secure the greatest permanent value of state forestlands to the state.
Figure 1. The Santiam State Forest in the Oregon Cascades east of Salem. Source: Jason McArthur via Wikipedia.
Controversy over the management of state forests in Oregon is on the rise, which is a good thing. Before examining some of the controversies in Part 3, let’s first understand the various kinds of state forests and the administrative entities that manage them. It’s not a completely straightforward picture, so it helps to know the actors before looking at the drama.
Types of State Forestlands
There are basically three types of “state forestlands” in Oregon, growing out of their ancestry: Common School Fund forestlands, Oregon Board of Forestry state forests and forestlands, and Oregon State University research forests (Table 1).
Common School Fund Lands
Upon attaining statehood in 1859, Oregon received 2 square miles of every township (36 square miles) in the state. Most lands were sold, often fraudulently (e.g., a US senator from Oregon went to prison over it). What remains are assets of the Common School Fund (which also includes other, more lucrative, assets), the net proceeds of which are spent on K–12 education.
The State Land Board (SLB) is the “owner” of Common School Fund (CSF) lands. CSF lands, while “owned” by the SLB, are not, in fact, public lands. They are trust lands—held in trust for the benefit of Oregon’s schoolchildren—that allow public access and have public values.
While Oregon schoolchildren and their fans are a large subset of Oregonians, nonetheless, the mandates in both the Oregon Constitution and the congressional Oregon Statehood Act of 1859 mean that CSF lands have restrictions placed on their use. Fortunately, a recent Oregon Supreme Court decision found that the belief long accepted by most that the SLB could only manage CSF trust lands for maximum revenue generation is not the case. (See the Public Lands Blog post “Converting State Trust Lands into Public Lands, Part 2: Focus on Oregon.”)
State Forests and Forestlands
In the 1930s, lots of private timberlands were subject to “cut and run” forestry. Private owners would clear-cut the land and then stop paying taxes. The result was that thirteen Oregon counties ended up with a lot of private timberland they really didn’t want and could not sell. Complicating matters were the Tillamook Burns (four large fires, all caused by logging—the northern Oregon Coast Range has the lowest incidence of lightning in the coterminous US), and the Great Depression.
In 1940, the State of Oregon made a deal with the counties. The counties would give the land to the state, which would replant it, assume all management costs, and give the counties two-thirds of any revenues received. Most counties took the deal. Coos and Hood River Counties did not, which is why they have county forests.
Not all state forestlands are part of formally established state forests. There are significant acreages in scattered parcels.
State Research Forests
Research forests owned by Oregon State University (OSU) are generally a scary lot of lots. All were obtained from people who gave some or all of their private timberland to the OSU College of Forestry. They generally serve as playgrounds for students and faculty to further or hone their intensive timber management skills. As late as last year, the OSU College of Forestry was caught clear-cutting very old-growth trees in the McDonald-Dunn Research Forest.
Administrative Entities
You might argue that the ultimate owners of Oregon’s various state forests are Oregonians themselves, and you would mostly be correct. But there are six different administrative entities of the State of Oregon that concern themselves with state forestlands.
The owners of the various state forests are either the Oregon Board of Forestry (OBF), the State Land Board (SLB), or Oregon State University (OSU). The administrators of state forests are either the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), the Oregon Department of State Lands (ODSL), or the OSU College of Forestry (OSUCF).
Oregon Department of Forestry
The ODF administers all OBF lands and some SLB forestlands (Common School Fund lands) in western Oregon as well as SLB forestlands (Common School Fund lands) in eastern Oregon (Maps 1 and 2).
Map 1. Western and central Oregon state forestlands administered by the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF). Included are certain Common School Fund lands under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Department of State Lands that are managed by contract with ODF. Conspicuously absent is the Elliott State Forest, which the ODF used to mismanage, in northern Coos and western Douglas Counties. Source: Oregon Department of Forestry.
Map 2. The Oregon Department of Forestry administers various scattered parcels, rarely even one section (640 acres, 1 square mile) in size, that are Common School Fund lands under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Department of State Lands but administered under contract with ODF.. The circles merely depict location, not size. Essentially all are adjacent to or surrounded by federal public lands. Source: Oregon Department of Forestry.
Oregon Department of State Lands
The ODSL reports to the SLB and administers the remaining SLB lands in western Oregon not managed under contract with ODF—that is, the Elliott State Forest (Map 3).
Map 3. The Elliott State Forest (goldenrod) is administered by the Oregon Department of State Lands (ODSL). Oregon Department of Forestry (light sky blue areas within and outside of the ESF, aside from waterways), US Forest Service (pale green areas outside the ESF), and Bureau of Land Management (reddish areas outside the ESF) lands are also shown. Source: Oregon Department of Forestry.
Oregon State University College of Forestry
The OSUCF administers OSU’s state research forests. I lump OSU research forests into state forests for two reasons: (1) When there were fewer, they were mapped as “state forests”; and (2) OSU may end up with the SLB’s Elliott State Forest morphing into an Elliott State Research Forest.
For More Information
• Oregon’s State Land Inventory Project. Interactive and rather definitive map of all state-owned lands in Oregon.
• Oregon State University research forests
• Oregon state forests and forestlands administered by the Oregon Department of Forestry
• “Governor’s Nominees to Struggling Forestry Department’s Board May Be Stalled as Wildfires Rage,” by Ted Sickinger, Oregonian, September 21, 2020.
• “Failing Forestry: Oregon’s Forestry Department Is on an Unsustainable Path,” by Ted Sickinger, Oregonian, October 20, 2019.