State taxpayers now own 157 acres of newly logged land near Horseshoe Falls along the East Fork of the Lewis River.
On Tuesday, the state Board of Natural Resources paid $145,000 to a pair of landowners 12 miles northeast of Battle Ground. The land, though logged last year, will be replanted and eventually provide a source of logging revenue to benefit the state's Common Schools trust fund.
"We're looking at it for the long term," said Jane Chavey, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources in Olympia.
The property is about 41/2 miles upriver from Moulton Falls County Park, and it will become part of the Yacolt Burn State Forest. It was owned by Merrill & Ring Forest Products and Douglas Allen. Chavey said the Board of Natural Resources had the purchase money available from a pot of money generated by the DNR selling isolated parcels of forestland elsewhere around the state.
"It's important to put this money to work, finding replacement properties to keep the trust whole and help fund public schools into the future," state lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said in a prepared statement.
The six-member natural resources board, which includes state schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson, oversees 2.1 million acres of state forestland that's supposed to be managed for the benefit of trust-funds-supported common schools, Capitol buildings and counties.
Logging profits from state-owned lands pay for 25 percent to 30 percent of the state's contribution to school construction costs.The Columbian
