At a July 29 meeting, Clackamas County Commissioners voted 4-0 (one
excused) to decline an offer by Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC) to
purchase approximately 140 acres out of a larger 340 acre parcel, and gave
the go ahead to start the bidding process for eventual logging.

WRC submitted a proposal at the end of May to purchase the smaller section,
and the county postponed sending the harvest out to bid for one month in an
attempt to strike a deal.

Clackamas County Parks and Forests Manager Rick Gruen noted the deal was
contingent on getting a value that met the market value for the price of
timber on the land and the value of the land itself, giving the county the
opportunity to purchase other property.

“We couldn’t do either satisfactorily,” Gruen said. “It’s very important to us to
pay for acquisitions out of capital dollars.”

Gruen declined to reveal how much WRC offered for the property, but the
county did not submit a counter offer.

He added the county has been in “open communication” with WRC and would
consider a new offer from the organization in the future.

“They know where they need to get to,” Gruen said.

The project is expected to go to bid as early as late September or early
October, and Gruen noted the likeliest start time for logging on the property
would be in the summer of 2015.

The sale would represent three years of timber harvest and should yield
approximately 6.4 million board feet, with money from the sale going into a
county fund used to run its parks and forest programs.

Gruen added the county expected a geotechnical report from an outside
consulting firm in late August, further detailing slide potential on the site and
impact on Country Club Road from logging trucks and offering
recommendations.

“If they do find evidence of that, we’ll adjust accordingly,” Gruen said, adding
that the county has already adjusted the logging plan to increase buffer
widths, create a 12-acre no-cut zone to preserve the view from the Mount
Hood Village RV Resort and modified hours of operations.

The WRC did not respond to a request for comments.