5,000 Acre Public Lands Privatization Proposed for SW Oregon (STOPPED FOR NOW)
Nearly a complete Victory with approximately 4,000 acres of Common School Fund Lands dropped from Auction! The Director of the Department of State Lands (DSL) sent a personal email to Eco Advocates NW stating that the remaining acres, approximately 4,000, will be dropped from being auctioned at this time. They stated the DSL will be soliciting interest from federal agencies as well as conservation entities to purchase these lands in the future.
However, since these lands are still under the Department of State Lands jurisdiction they are still not protected from a future auction.
See Article on February 13th 2012 from the Salem News.
Eco Advocates NW has been tracking and dogging the Oregon Department of State Lands and the Oregon State Land Board since a concerned citizen brought this privatization of Public Lands issue to us back in September of 2010.
In December 2010 the Oregon Department of State Lands "publicly" proposed to privatize approximately 4,920 acres of Common School Fund lands throughout Josephine and Jackson counties in southwest Oregon.
The Department of State Lands website states that the auctions were to be carried out in 2012.
The initial Josephine and Jackson land disposal plan was announced at the State Land Board meeting in December 15, 2010.
Astonishingly some of the land parcels proposed for sale by the Oregon Department of State Lands is ancient forests literally along the banks of the Wild and Scenic Rogue River (pictured below) which is visited by thousands of rafters, fisher people and travelers every summer.
Another 640 acre parcel proposed for auction is inside Oregon's largest unprotected road-less area, the South Kalmiopsis, of the Siskiyou Mountains. The Woodcock Creek area (picture below) is considered one of the most diverse botanical hot-spots in Oregon. It is registered by the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center as one of Oregon's most important biological heritage resource sites.
What You Can Do to Help Stop These Auctions Proposed by the State of Oregon:
This current round of proposed auctions in Southwest Oregon is the last portion of a total of 12,000 acres the State Land Board must approve of some time in 2011 at a State Land Board Meeting. We are trying to track when this will appear on the State Land Board agenda but the official agenda is usually only available a week before the State Land Board Meeting.
To view the exact locations as well as assessed values and other descriptions of the parcels for auction go to:
http://www.oregon.gov/DSL/LW/land_sales.shtml
See Article written by Eric Mortenson with Oregonian on December 15th 2010 about the proposal to privatize more CSF land in Southwest Oregon.
We were noted in the article. " A Eugene group, Cascadia's Ecosystem Advocates, protested the move during the Land Board meeting and called for a moratorium on land deals."
Action Alert. Please Contact Governor John Kitzhaber, Secretary of State Kate Brown, and State Treasurer Ted Wheeler and urge them to:
1) place a moratorium on the sale of all Common School Fund lands and
2) to initiate an independent investigation by the Attorney General John Kroger on past Common School Fund Land sales and exchanges to determine if there were violations of state and federal ethics laws.
Post a 8.5 by 11 inch flyer about these threats to the Rogue River and other lands that must stay in public ownership on a billboard or symphathetic shop window near you from the "Public Land PrivatizationThreaten" Documents below.
For contact information for the decision makers and other details please open Attachment "Public Land Privatization Threatens Rogue River or Oregon's Largest Road-less Area" below.
To view or print Barbara Ullian's and Friends of the Kalmiopsis very detailed alert on the Woodcock Creek Parcel (one of Oregon's Biological Hot-spots) please go to Woodcock Creek attachment below.