Conservation groups hope to buy forestlands to manage

Brad Chalfant eases a 12-passenger van over a jagged logging road just miles from the Three Sisters. Once owned by a timber company, the 50-square-mile forest that Chalfant, executive director of the Deschutes Land Trust, hopes to buy isn't the kind of place that typically attracts tour groups. Invariably, someone on a fundraising tour will ask about the stumps and slash piles, which are everywhere. "Why would I give money to cut trees down?" asks a woman on a November day. The question highlights Chalfant's challenge as he shapes the future of forestry in Oregon: How do you convince the public that logging forests is a means of saving them? Conservation groups are now the forest industry's biggest allies, as institutional investors buy millions of acres of forestland nationwide. From Maine to Montana, they're giving rise to a new model of private ownership, called community forests, hoping to save them from homes and subdivisions. They're finding creative ways to finance big purchases and pushing a surprising tactic to preserve trees: harvesting them...read more