Public Land Privatization by Oregon: a Sweetheart Deal for Giustina Logging
In March of 2010 we started to witness the results of a sweetheart land privatizaion deal between the Oregon Department of State Lands and Giustina Resources. In 2009 an Oregon Board of Forestry Board (OBOF) Member Larry Giustina was able to convince the Oregon Department of State Lands as well as his fellow OBOF associates to offer his cousin Dan Giustina of Giustina Resoruces about 621 acres of mature forests in South Gate Creek in the headwaters of North Fork Quartz Creek in the McKenzie Watershed in exchange for a failing 63 tract subdivision in Redmond, Oregon. These Common School Fund parcels were not part of the original parcels that were to be offered for sale by the Department of State Lands. But it appears that the Oregon Board of Forestry had something to do with adding these special parcels sometime later in the process.
To read an Eric Mortenson/Oregonian article describing the official account of the so called legitimate exchange click here.
Subsequent to this exchange here is what I witnessed in March 2010 in Giustina's log deck yard just outside Eugene, Oregon.
I was astounded by the size and age of the old tree corpses I witnessed stacked at the Giustina log yard.
The next day we followed a one log load from the Giustina Log yard to Coos Bay and a company called Overseas Exports.
A few weeks earlier another forest activists witnessed many huge ancient tree corpses including one log loads coming out of Blue River Reservoir Road from the North Fork of Quartz Creek. He later inquired to the Forest Service about whether these ancient trees were from National Forest lands. The Forest Service stated that these logs where not coming from National Forest lands. However, the Forest Service relayed that they were aware of some logging be done up North Fork Quartz Creek via their forest road network by Giustina Resources.
Below is is a 5 foot in diameter leftover ( I suppose it had too many large upper limbs to make the grade for export) located in the once publicly owned North Fork Quartz Creek land that was auctioned to Giustina Resources.
To make a long story short, the Giustina family recieved nearly 700 acres of publicly owned Common School Fund forest lands (what is left of South Gate Creek parcel is pictured below) which resulted in a great profit for them. The Department of State Lands states that since Larry Giustina and Dan Giustina have different company names and are therefore not connected financially to each others transactions.
The Oregon Department of State Lands approved this deal and to this day denies they were bamboozled by Larry or Dan Giustina or the Oregon Department of Forestry.
We ask if this case in point is not enough to cause public suspicion of said transaction and to initiate a formal public ethics inquiry by the current State Land Board or the Attorney General then what does?
