Researcher(s):
Jay Horita-Chu
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2017 Completed: May 2018 Go to project site
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Environmental laws and regulations have reduced logging levels in the Pacific Northwest, but some entities like the Elliott State Forest (ESF) have a constitutional obligation to generate revenue for the Common School Fund, which funds Oregon’s public schools. In recent years, the Elliott’s timber harvest activities have been dramatically reduced, largely in part due to litigation from environmental advocacy groups about ESF’s sensitive species: marbled murrelet, coastal coho salmon, and northern spotted owl. After a botched attempt to sell the ESF to private timber companies and Native American tribes, the Elliott and its managerial entity the Oregon State Land Board have been still unsuccessful in balancing adherence to federally mandated conservation regulations and economic obligations to the Common School Fund. As a response, the State Land Board is considering several options, two of which I will be analyzing in greater depth. Via spatial and economic analysis, I plan to research how a combination of selling ESF land directly to federal entities, reinvesting the revenue from these sales, and a land exchange between federal entities and the ESF can prevent further losses to Oregon’s schools and absolve the forest’s obligations to the Common School Fund.