The Skyline Forest is up for sale
The Bull Springs Skyline Forest is widely cherished by Central Oregonians and visitors alike. Directly northwest of Bend, the 33,000-acre area offers a wide variety of recreation opportunities including hiking, mountain biking, and wildlife viewing. It is important habitat for deer and elk in the Tumalo Winter Range. The forest is perhaps most well recognized, though, for framing the stunning view of the Three Sisters Mountains seen from HWY 20 when travelling between Bend and Sisters.
For decades LandWatch has fought efforts by developers to build homes on Skyline’s private timberland, and for decades the working forest has balanced timber production with recreational and ecological values. But now that balance is under threat as the forest has been placed on the market for $127 million.
We must uphold the land use laws that protect areas like the Skyline Forest from being developed.
Aside from Skyline’s critical importance to Central Oregon’s people and wildlife, the effects of climate change and the dry ponderosa pine forest have led to an overwhelming wildfire risk, and several large fires have already occurred within the forest boundaries in recent years. The 2010 Rooster Rock Fire burned 6,134 acres, more than half of which was inside the bounds of the Skyline Forest, and the 2014 Two Bulls Fire burned 6,908 acres on the forest’s southeast portion.
Despite extreme fire risk, the property is advertised as prime for a destination resort or a cluster development.
Current forest zoning offers some protection from development, but we must always stay vigilant in Central Oregon. LandWatch will closely monitor the status of Skyline Forest and be at the front line of defense, as we have been for nearly 35 years.
This season your year-end gift will go twice as far! Thanks to a generous grant from the Brainerd Foundation, your gift will be matched up to $35,000 to defend what you love about
Central Oregon.