PACIFIC RAINFOREST WILDLIFE GUARDIANS
South
Fork Gate Creek/Giustina Land Exchange
Public Comments Needed Soon
1.
Oregon State Land Board is considering swapping 622 acres of Common School Fund
Forest land, over 1/3 of it Old-Growth, for Land 1/10th that Size in the Mojave
Desert, and the state would pay $100,000.-, too. To entice the trade,
subdivision acres were misrepresented to be worth $210,000.- an acre, though
none of them had ever sold. Where could 76 wealthy enough people be found in
Redmond willing to add another $250,000.- + to build a house on these crowded
1/2 acre lots? It would cost @ 1/3 million for a small one story, 2 bedroom
house. Only a lot with it's back yard actually adjoining a golf course is
worth more than without a golf course, but inflated prices are given to every
lot in this corrupt real estate scheme.
2. Section
16 not surplus land and fails to meet the application of law stated in the
reasons for the exchange. There is already too little CSF forest land to
provide funding for K-12 schools. Just
such senseless disposal of these lands before the need for it was realized, and
land frauds, especially in the early 20th century, reduced 3.4
million acres of CSF lands to nearly 1/4 of the original size. There is not
enough school funding from CSF forest lands now due to lost capitol and land.
DSL's
website says: "Although the state will
never get those lands back (lands lost to fraud), the Department of State Lands
(DSL) and the Land Board are committed to managing our current real estate
portfolio to significantly increase the Common School Fund over time. Through selling
nonproductive, isolated parcels and reinvesting in higher-earning lands, the
department is making long-term investments for Oregon’s school
children." Yet this working forest
is being traded for land that has never earned a dime and was falsely valued as
if every lot was directly adjacent to a golf course!! DSL should stop shedding
crocodile tears for past land frauds while falling for new ones, ever shrinking
the CSF land base!!
3.
Too much clear-cutting, instead of sustainable thinning and selective logging,
has further reduced available funding for schools from the lands, despite the
Department of Forestry's claims that endangered species did it.
4. The governor has said
he is against selling CFS land at the Elliott State Forest. The same reasoning
should apply at South Fork Gate Creek Section 16.
5.
This is not a true exchange. It is a delayed sale in which the state and
schools would have to hold a deed for collateral to see any return from the
trade until all of the 76 half acre lots are sold to individuals, if ever.
School funding would go for maintenance wages for weed control, and removal of
drifting sand and tumbleweed in the mean time.
As
a result, there would never be funding for K-12 schools ever again from 622
acres of CSF forest land bearing old-growth and late seral soils of highest
quality for growing timber and ecosystems. In return for sustainable income to
schools, there would be nothing from now on. This is a perfect reason to say NO
to the "exchange", not leave our children holding the deed for our
mistakes.
Redmond parcel undeveloped except
curbs and utilities. Only 4 trees are now left.
6. It is not an equal exchange. The state would lose 900%, acre per acre alone. Section 16 is a working forest that has produced revenue to schools time and again. The Redmond property is a pipe dream, a speculation gone wrong and Giustina wants the state to bail him out. Oregon can't bail itself out, and must avoid foolish speculation and questionable land exchanges above all else. In this time of economic disaster, sound decisions are paramount, not foolish ones.
7.
It is the duty of the State Lands Board to put school children and their
futures first above the financial needs of Giustina Resources. Today's students
hold the solutions for future success of Oregon, not the Giustina family, I
hope.
8.
Larry Giustina is on the Board of Forestry that tells the Department of
Forestry what to do with Oregon State Forests such as Sec. 16, South Fork Gate
Creek. Corrupt influence over the Department of Forestry is a violation of
state ethics laws and federal racketeering laws, too.
9.
Indications of racketeering by the Giustina family are reason enough to say NO
to the shady deal.
Competitor Eagle Crest - Charcoal gray are
new roof tops
This
photo was taken in mid 2006, before Giustina's parcel was developed and so was
the one above it. Sales at Redmond were already decreasing. The stock market
crash had nothing to do with it.
10.
Massive over-development at Eagle Crest Golf Course/Subdivision and others
makes it highly unlikely the Redmond property would ever sell unless for low
income housing. Eagle Crest is on the Deschutes River, Giustina's subdivision
is on a big enclosing pipe of drainage ditch water for
irrigation.
“Hoooo are these people and what are they doing to my home?”
11. Additionally, the exchange is an illegal logging
scheme. As Weyerhaeuser has had Plum Creek clear-cut their spotted owl habitat,
so does ODF seek to let the Guistina family clear-cut the most suitable habitat
of a female Northern Spotted Owl who would be left without the required
acreage. USF&W would not approve state clear-cutting of 260 acres of
old-growth forest needed by the spotted owl, future mates and fledglings for
forage, shelter, socializing, protection from predators and bad weather, protective
micro-climate, and future nests. There
has been no official biological assessment.
12. The swap is an ESA take of crucial habitat by the Giustina family for the state. The constitution requires that the board comply with both state and federal Endangered Species Acts. They would log all old-growth that the state is prohibited from logging. This is conspiracy to take a threatened species, a federal crime and felony! USF&W fails to hold private land owners accountable for ESA take. The SLB must say NO and withdraw from collusion. Their fiduciary duty requires them to comply with the Endangered Species Act, not side-wind around it.
Adjacent Giustina clear-cut
13. Another
example of collusion in an illegal logging conspiracy to take threatened
spotted owls through a 2nd party is the Department of State Lands current Rice
Creek land sale/exchange of occupied spotted owl habitat. If not leased, the
neighboring land owner could buy the land and clear-cut it without objection
from USF&W. The Department of State Lands is also trying to dispose of CSF
land that is needed by Oregon schools as a revenue source. This must stop!
State forest and rangeland have different criteria for management. Land
exchanges are management practices and State Forest laws apply.
14. DSL must stop selling Common School Fund forest land and exchanging it for lands not consistent with legislative intent of CSF forest lands. The SLB is directed by:
"Oregon's
Constitution Amendment VIII Section 5 (2) The board
shall manage lands under it's jurisdiction with the
object of obtaining
the greatest benefit for the people of this state, consistent with the
conservation of this resource under sound techniques of land management."
The
greatest benefit to the people of Oregon is to
insure continued revenue for education throughout the future consistent with
conservation and sound techniques of land management, not giving up CSF forest
land for pie in the sky speculation and a quick sell out. The Department of
State Lands Asset Management Plan and this exchange are unconstitutional,
completely ignoring constitutional law in order to super cede it. We object to
the Giustina/South Fork Gate Creek Exchange as
contrary to law and the Constitutions.
"In
Attorney General Crookham's opinion, the resources of Admission Act lands are not
limited to those, such as timber, that are currently recognized as revenue
generators for the CSF, but include all of the features of the land that may
be of use to schools, Other resources, such as minerals, water, and plant
materials that may offer revenue for the fund should be considered."
The
constitution does not say that CSF revenue must go for schools, but to schools
for education. Indeed, the future of the human race depends upon knowledge
gained in virgin forest watersheds by science students. The urgency is becoming
frightfully clear.
* ** *** ** *
15.
The Department of State Lands claims that general criteria for disposal is met
by:
a.
"This is an isolated parcel of forest land acquired as an in lieu
parcel."
Being
in lieu is not cause to dispose of it. It should be cause to maintain it as has
been done with conservation and sound techniques of management for 150 years.
It
is not isolated, being from 2 to 11 miles from 3 other parcels of state forest
land for sale that all claim to be isolated, too. It's moderately large size
makes it a working forest in itself, not a mere parcel.
b.
Parcel has low appreciation potential. Explanation-Lane County forest zoning is
extremely restrictive.
Then
all forest land has low appreciation if it can't be re-zoned to suit real
estate developers. Timber value has dropped 30% everywhere. At such a low dip,
the land value can only appreciate higher. This is a false claim and we dispute
it. CSF land was never intended to be of highest and best use for private land
owners and real estate developers.
c.
Parcel is an in-holding within a major landowner's ownership, or small isolated
tract. Explanation-parcel is at west edge of Willamette National Forest.
Some of Section 16 - South Fork Gate Creek old-growth riparian buffers.
South Fork Gate Creek Section 16 is not small, non-productive or isolated and is not an in-holding if it is only bordered on 1.5 sides by Willamette National Forest, title holder of the land.
It is an adjacent side-holding. c. is a false claim. Their website
says that Giustina land surrounds it which is also false with 2.5 sides
adjacent to them or Weyerhaeuser. The land to be received doesn't consolidate
any state land, and is not the same land class as required, either.
The DSL must ask the National Forest Service if they would like to exchange
industrial forest land with the Common School Fund. It's their spotted owl nest and her best
habitat. It seems reasonable
to solicit a response from the Forest Service. A trade with them would be more
appropriate than for a small subdivision in a small, isolated town in the
Mojave Desert, considering the constitutional mandates mentioned above and
prudent responsibility of the board's actions.
16. The state must
receive more land, not less and it must be of higher quality in an exchange -
"equal or greater value for growing forest 'crops'" as state forest. State
forest law applies also. DSL omitted it.
CSF land must be traded for well forested land with high numbers
of board feet per acre, 44 MBF+, not dead end streets. Only the forest service could
provide such a parcel. Their rules are like ours and they are always looking
for land to swap. We respectfully demand their participation in all fairness
and good faith, if there is to be a trade at all.
Adjacent
Giustina clear-cut riparian buffer of threatened Spring Chinook Salmon.
The
Obama Administration told the state they would get no more salmon recovery
money unless results show improvement. Clear-cutting riparian's of South Fork
Gate Creek, tributary of the McKenzie River @ 35 miles east of Eugene, would
cause worse results for salmon recovery, not better. So long federal salmon
funds!
The
CSF needs to increase it's forest land base with quality, productive forest
land. CSF land must benefit education, not the real estate industry. Keeping
the virgin forest for watershed and fish habitat protection is the best and
highest use of the riparian land. Providing study opportunities in cooperation
with the Hagan Natural Research Area provides educational benefits for Oregon's
students as is required. Most of the land is working forest land that pays into
the CSF. 260 acres of ancient forest in one place is extremely rare. It
would be a crime to let it be clear-cut.
17.
Steep land is measured horizontally, so steep slopes have much greater land
surfaces than level land. Old growth forest on the steep slopes far exceeds 260
acres if measured by surface volume. Trading steep land for level land is not
an equal exchange.
18. There is no legitimate reason for this exchange, only loss of
school and salmon recovery revenue and ancient forest ecosystems forever if it
is approved. Likely the Giustina family just wants to
clear-cut the old-growth female spotted owl's habitat, and not have to pay
property tax any more for the vacant subdivision. These are the purpose of the
exchange. So Section 16 and the group of parcels nearby were all put up for
sale. No longer paying property tax for the Redmond land does not help educate
K-12 students in Deschutes County. It harms education instead, future school
funding to the Common School Fund gone forever, and all the lessons to be
learned a failure. PLEASE, NO SWAP!!