In an act of sudden legal effort, the Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) is seeking comments on administrative rules to legalize the Elliott State Research Forest, Forest Management Plan by reference into Administrative Rules 141-079. At the October 2024 meeting of the State Land Board, the Board approved the 2024 Forest Management Plan with the intent to then incorporate the plan into Oregon’s Administrative Rules. The comment period is open from February 3 - March 5, 2025 at 5 p.m.

The Forest Management Plan claims to guide how the lands will be managed to sustain its diverse values, address fundamental research questions regarding working forests in the context of climate change, and achieve the specific ecosystem goods and service outcomes envisioned for the Elliott.

The question is, what is “envisioned for the Elliott.” The Forest Management Plan adopted is top heavy in preserving the Elliott through carbon credits, which doesn’t reduce carbon but allows polluters to continue polluting for a price under Oregon’s cap-and-trade system. To be eligible for carbon offset crediting, forest projects must demonstrate that they will store more carbon than their business-as-usual approach. Additionally, these projects must show permanence, typically defined as the ability to store carbon for 100 years or longer, says Laura Dee, a CU Boulder assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Not everyone’s vision for the Elliott is to lock it up in carbon credits. Bob Zybach Ph.D, Environmental Scientist, has been promoting the “Oregon Giesy Plan” since 2014. He says, “A course correction is long past due, and the public deserves to know what is taking place, and what alternatives might be possible. More time is needed to consider this costly Forest Management Plan and its focus on a few investors profiting from carbon credits, rather than our schools and rural counties profiting once again from a functional working forest with untapped educational and research opportunities.”

Zybach is proposing a Resolution to the Oregon Logging Conference (OCL), meeting in Eugene on February 20, regarding the carbon credit scheme that has been taking place on the Elliott Forest under Huntington’s direction, and calling for an immediate financial audit of taxpayer investments, including Secretary of State Tobias Read’s role as State Treasurer:

OLC calls for the immediate suspension of all plans and expenditures regarding possible carbon credit sales on the Elliot State Forest; that all 550 miles of historic Elliott roads be maintained for public, recreational, research, educational, and forest management access; that Elliott forest management return immediately to 1989 harvest levels of a minimum 50 mmbf in sales per year until updated plans can be developed, and that net proceeds go directly to Oregon public K-12 schools, as intended in 1859, in 1930, and continued until 2017.

How did carbon credits take over the Elliott Forest management plan? Dr. Dave Sullivan documented the behind-the-scenes transformation of the Elliott State Forest to a carbon credit plan. Sullivan was concerned at the cost of hundreds of logging jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to school funds. He says that history follows that secrets deliberately attempting to avoid oversight, retain power and force for a desired political outcome.

Sullivan’s research ran into many roadblocks trying to find hidden information on basic financial statements, management plans, timber levels, meeting notes and he found no data models for the proposal. The vast majority of basic information needed to make informed decisions was being hidden from public view. One of these secret meetings of the College of Forestry spent $660,000 of Department of State Lands funds to create an Elliott State Research Forest Proposal, which slowly leaked information through the Science Advisory Panel.

Even though there was a lack of transparency, Sullivan found one consistent thread. Starting in 2018, Geoff Huntington, under contract with OSU, did a behind-the-scenes transformation of the Elliott State Forest to a carbon credit scheme at the cost of hundreds of logging jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to our schools. Although he is a UO environmental law graduate and founder of the Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation, he was somehow representing OSU College of Forestry by himself without oversight. Using information shared with him by Wayne Giesy and Zybach regarding the proposed "Elliott State Education Forest," he developed a carbon credit plan that locked down timber harvests even though OSU became steadfast in opposition to monetizing the carbon within the Elliott as an interference to research to study sustainable management questions.

When Tom DeLuca was hired as the new OSU Dean of Forestry, Huntington left for a taxpayer-paid position with DSL, under now Director Vicki Walker, who was the only DSL signer on Huntington’s original carbon credit plan. He continued working closely with State Land Board member, State Treasurer Tobias Read, to further his plan. Read completely backed this arrangement and openly referenced Huntington’s influence at public meetings rather than auditing the DSL and OSU books to see how taxpayer funds were being redirected. Now Read is next in line for the governorship, which will most likely continue the 2024 Elliott Forest Management Plan leaving rural Oregon, the State’s forest industry, and schools underfunded.

"When Governor Kotek was elected, Huntington advanced to become her personal advisor on natural resources. This move helped further codify the mismanagement of the Elliott for the benefit of a handful of elite government officials and wealthy investors at the expense of hundreds of rural workers and all Oregon school children and should be brought before the public before any more backroom politics take place," says Zybach.

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Zybach also wants, “an audit of costs and losses related to government mismanagement of the Elliott since 2018 before going any further down this costly and counter-productive road. The principal conclusion of reviewing the Elliott State Research Forest Plan proposal is that it is fundamentally misdirected and likely to fail on both economic and scientific fronts if it is adopted in its present form. The analysis suggests the misdirection of management will continue to cost Oregon schools hundreds of millions of dollars, cost local communities hundreds of needed blue-collar jobs, significantly increase the risk of catastrophic wildfire to local communities and wildlife, and will be unlikely to produce scientific information of particular value to Oregon landowners, resource managers, students, and taxpayers.”

Eight Republican legislators have sponsored HB 3103, which directs the State Forester to establish sustainable harvest levels for harvesting timber on state forestland and develop a timber inventory model to inform sustainable harvest levels to prevent wildfires. Your support is needed for the bill to receive a hearing.

Representative Boomer Wright (R-Coos Bay) is sponsoring HB 3508 for the State Forest Department to study methods for improving active forest management.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2025-02-07 20:04:02

Last Update: 2025-02-08 17:28:28