This article was published on: 12/16/22 3:50 PM
Roughly 33,000 acres of privately-owned forestland outside of Bend have been up for sale since 2019, a status that failed to diminish its popularity among people who regularly used it for recreation. It has developed a reputation as a prime location for secluded, offbeat biking and hiking trails.
But the land, dubbed by users as Skyline Forest, is now the focus of a heightened conservation campaign after its owners barred the public in August and, a month later, dropped the listing price from $127 million to $95 million.
Officially known as the Bull Springs Tree Farm, the forestland is located in the foothills between Bend and Sisters. It’s seen as an environmental haven. Central Oregon LandWatch, the regional land use watchdog organization, is encouraging local leaders to advocate for a conservation-focused land acquisition, which would allow for groundwater and wildlife protection, wildfire risk mitigation and public access.
Ben Gordon, executive director of LandWatch, said the organization is also trying to avoid a worst case scenario: a new property owner turning the land into a large-scale luxury subdivision.
“In order for Skyline to be protected, I think it has to rise to the level of importance that it deserves, which is it’s a Central Oregon treasure, frankly,” Gordon said.
The only acceptable outcome is open access and certain protection, Gordon said.
As a part of its Save Skyline Forest Campaign, LandWatch delivered a letter to several local leaders urging a conservation-focused acquisition of Skyline Forest. Among those leaders were Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang and three members of the Bend City Council.
“The stakes are high. If this place becomes a large-scale, luxury development, we will have lost a vital place that is intrinsic and foundational to Central Oregon’s livability,” the LandWatch letter reads.
“It was kind of a way to harness and catalyze all these voices from folks throughout the community who have been participating in our campaign in various degrees to make their voices heard to their elected officials,” said Alex Hardison, the program and communications coordinator for LandWatch.
Skyline Forest is one of the largest intact forest properties for sale in the country, Hardison said. As long as it is in private hands, the issue of public access will always be in question, he said.
“There are a lot of different ways to conserve and preserve that area, and preserve especially the community benefits and the ecosystem benefits of that area,” said the recently elected mayor of Bend, Melanie Kebler. “It’s really just about the values that people have around that area, and the knowledge that it’s going to take a collaborative solution.”
Kebler said she wants to advocate for that collaborative solution that garners community support for preservation and reaches beyond the city of Bend.
The land, which is larger in size than the entire city of Bend, was closed in August to prevent fire danger, according to Deschutes land Trust, a local resource conservation nonprofit, which has worked since 2005 to permanently preserve Skyline Forest.
Skyline Forest is owned by Shanda Asset Management, a global investment group founded by Chinese billionaires.
The company owns around 700,000 acres of timberland in North America — mainly in Oregon and Ontario, Canada. Around 197,000 acres are located in Central Oregon. The 33,000 acres up for sale near Bend is comparatively small, said Chris Johnson, the executive director of timber operations for Shanda.
Shanda, formerly known as Whitefish Cascade Forest Resources, bought the land from Fidelity National Timber in 2015.
Since then, an exponential growth in population in the Deschutes County area and pandemic-related closure of area forests, caused a tremendous increase in public interest in accessing Skyline Forest, Johnson said.
“From my perspective, during the summer and the height of wildfire season, I see all of those people as possible ignition sources,” said Johnson, who has worked with Shanda since 2015.
The Two Bulls Fire in 2014 affected around 6,000 acres of Skyline Forest, Johnson said. Four years prior, the Rooster Rock Fire impacted around 1,000 acres of Skyline Forest land, Johnson said.
Shanda recently received state funding to conduct fuel reduction work throughout the forest, Johnson said. Currently, a 1,200-acre logging operation is underway to thin ponderosa pines and cut junipers to encourage wildfire resilience, he said.
The forest is currently under a seasonal closure to prioritize mule deer and other wildlife migration paths.
-Anna Kaminski