Sound Off: Skyline Forest

The Skyline Forest is a 33,000-acre tree farm west of Bend that was once owned by timber company Crown Pacific. In 2003, Crown Pacific filed for bankruptcy, and its assets went to its creditors. Ownership of Skyline Forest fell to Fidelity National Financial of Jacksonville, Florida and its subsidiary, Fidelity National Timber Resources. The dissolution of Crown Pacific and its use as timber lands led to a struggle with many stakeholders. The plot’s owner, Fidelity, seeks legislation that would change Skyline Forest’s land use to accommodate residential units. Nonprofit Central Oregon LandWatch fought to restrict the use of the land and the number of residential units. In May 2009, Oregon legislators asked Fidelity, Central Oregon LandWatch and the Deschutes Land Trust to negotiate a deal that would create incentives for the landowner to limit the footprint of their development. Those negotiations ended in HB 2228, which the Legislature passed in June of that year. That bill allowed Fidelity National Timber Resources to build 282 dwellings on a small portion of the forest if it agreed to sell the remaining acreage to Deschutes Land Trust. Citing insufficient time to research the economics that drove the original bill, Fidelity, after the bill’s passage, sought to change the terms of it with more residential units. Today, the situation remains at an impasse.