A prominent Oregon timber company’s bid to purchase state forest land in Oregon is hitting a nerve with environmentalists who say it could lead to logging on the habitat of species protected by state and federal laws.
The Seneca Jones Timber Co. has submitted a bid on a 788-acre parcel of Elliott State Forest in the Oregon Coast Range northeast of Coos Bay. The parcel was put up for sale by the Oregon Department of State Lands.
The East Hakki Ridge parcel that Seneca Jones Timber bid on is one of three parcels of the Elliott State Forest being put up for sale by Oregon. They total 1,453 acres. The Oregon Department of State Lands says it’s received five bids in all.
Conservation groups say sensitive habitat on the Elliott State Forest receives environmental protection as public lands — but that wildlife and their habitat will be at greater risk if the timberlands become private. Cascadia Wildlands Conservation Director Francis Eatherington said the parcel of coastal forest shouldn’t be sold off. “It’s some rare forest that has never been logged before. These are our old coastal forests, which is why there are species that depend on these forests and can live nowhere else,” she said.
Although little true old growth remains in the Elliott, about half the forest is between 120 and 140 years old. It is home to 63 species of birds, including endangered spotted owls and marbled murrelets. The forest is also habitat for listed coastal coho salmon.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting: https://earthfix.opb.org/land/article/seneca-jones-bids-on-elliott-state-forest-land-a-c/