By Oregon State Representatives Boomer Wright and Court Boice
April 30th, 2025
Today, Senate Bill 147 A received a work session in the Joint Subcommittee on Natural Resources. Coastal Republicans, Representatives Boomer Wright (R-Coos Bay) and Court Boice (R-Gold Beach), opposed the bill, which would transfer 83,000 acres of the Elliott State Forest from the State Board of Forestry to the State Land Board with the provision that it be designated for research. The Elliott State Forest, located in Coos Bay, was founded in 1930 and is Oregon’s first State Forest.
“When you don’t manage your forests properly, you get wildfires,” said Rep. Boice. “Due to the State Board of Forestry’s management of forests like the Elliott State Forest, Coos County has gone nearly 40 years without any major wildfires. Now, with the transfer between agencies and the designation of the Elliott State Forest as a research forest, responsible forest management is under threat, putting thousands of acres and Oregonians on the south coast at risk – not to mention the tremendous loss to our Common School Fund.”
Oregon State University was originally set to manage the research forest. However, OSU backed out, citing differences between the State Land Board, Tribal Nations, Counties, timber companies and other stakeholders.
“It is time for the Elliott Forest mismanagement to stop and give these trust lands back to our children. This process has been one mistake after another and has shown government bureaucracy at its best,” said Rep. Wright. “The environmental non-profit for-profit organizations have supported and pushed their agenda of forest mismanagement of the Elliott over our children’s education, safety from wildfires, and costing rural communities good-paying jobs that put food on their tables, clothes on their backs and roofs over their heads. Oregon State University seems to be the only sane member of this idiocy and said NO to the project feasibility, and so should the legislature.”
SB 147 A passed out of the Joint Subcommittee on Natural Resources and is now headed to the full Committee on Ways and Means.
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