State Land Board to Consider Elliott State Research Forest Proposal

Oregon State University will present an Elliott State Research Forest proposal to the State Land Board on Tuesday, Dec. 8. The State Land Board in December 2018 asked the Department of State Lands and OSU to explore transforming the Elliott State Forest into a publicly owned research forest. The research forest proposal was drafted over the next two years, with input from advisory committees, Tribes, state and local governments, stakeholders, and the public. The Elliott State Forest is in both Douglas and Coos Counties. The release from the Oregon Department of State Lands said that "a successful proposal will be consistent with the Land Board’s vision for the forest, which includes keeping the forest publicly owned with public access; decoupling the forest from the Common School Fund and compensating the fund for the forest; continuing habitat conservation planning to protect species and allow for harvest; and providing for multiple forest benefits, including recreation, education and working forest research." The State Land Board video meeting begins at 10 a.m. and will be livestreamed to the DSL YouTube channel. The meeting agenda and materials, including the final research forest proposal and a summary of comments received, are available here. https://www.oregon.gov/dsl/Board/Pages/SLBmeetings.aspx The public may submit written testimony or sign up to provide spoken testimony during the meeting. The deadline to sign up to testify is 10 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 7. Testimony information is available at the link above. Approximately 1,700 comments regarding draft elements of the research forest proposal were submitted during the feedback period in October/November 2020.