Herald and News – by Samantha Tipler, February 20, 2015
A Singapore-based company purchased 197,000 acres of land in Klamath and Deschutes counties this week, including the 90,000-acre Mazama Forest, which was promised to the Klamath Tribes in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. The announcement Wednesday spurred a strong response from the Klamath Tribes Thursday.
“It was very surprising,” Don Gentry, chairman of the Klamath Tribes said. “This is obviously a disappointment.”
In a released statement, he spoke about how important it is for the Tribes to reacquire land included in the Klamath Reservation boundaries from the Treaty of 1864. The Tribes’ purchase of the Mazama Forest was a key component of that, and for the KBRA.
“Land recovery is an essential bargained-for benefit of the KBRA,” Gentry’s released statement said. “Nothing less than significant land recovery will work for the Klamath Tribes. We are committed to securing land base that will provide balance in the Agreement and economic opportunity for our people. Without land recovery, the Agreement simply will not work for the Klamath Tribes.”
In an interview, Gentry emphasized the importance of land recovery as part of the KBRA.
“It was a bargained-for benefit of the KBRA, so we need to explore other options for land recovery available out there to satisfy the Tribes’ need,” he said. “If we’re unable to purchase the Mazama, we need to look at other options.”
The purchase
The company buying the land is Whitefish Cascade Forest Resources, according to the Portland Business Journal. The company has a Salem address and is registered as an Oregon company, but has a principal address in Singapore and a mailing address in Seattle.
The company bought the land from Fidelity National Financial Ventures, the Portland Business Journal reported. The original article listed a price for the land, but since redacted it pending verification.
Fidelity National Financial Ventures “said it covered all of the assets of its portfolio company, Cascade Timberlands LLC. FNFW received a cash distribution of approximately $63 million,” the business journal article reads.
“We are excited to monetize the value of Cascade for our shareholders,” Fidelity National Financial Chairman William P. Foley, II, said in the Portland Business Journal article. “We have been owners of Cascade for approximately eight years and believe it is in the best interest of our shareholders to monetize the value of this land at this time and seek another use for this cash in the hopes of maximizing the value of our FNFV assets.”
Cascade Timberlands was listed as one of the top 24 taxpayers in Klamath County, according to the assessors’ office.
Klamath Tribes’ reaction
For more than a decade, the Klamath Tribes have planned on purchasing the Mazama Forest, the Tribes said in the released statement. The Mazama Forest is one of only two privately owned land parcels within the 1.2 million acres of Klamath Reservation from the Treaty of 1864.
“Earlier attempts to reacquire Reservation lands that had been converted to national forest land met with intense opposition,” the release said.
Acquiring the forest was also a “cornerstone element for the Klamath Tribes in the KBRA,” the release said.
The KBRA promised funding to the Klamath Tribes to purchase the land. Gentry said the Tribes previously had a purchase agreement with the former owner, but that agreement has expired. He said the Tribes would explore whether or not the new owners would be willing to sell.
“That would be something we would want to find out,” he said.
If the Mazama Forest is no longer an option, the Tribes will be looking for other options to recover land.
“We still need to achieve that same goal,” he said. “Whether it ends up being the Mazama Forest ultimately, or another property.”
The Tribes last week concluded a series of community meetings in Portland, Eugene, Chiloquin and Klamath Falls to discuss the Klamath Water Recovery and Economic Restoration Act (Senate Bill 133) and Klamath Basin adjudication.
The Tribes plans to fully discuss the Mazama Forest purchase and the tribal community meetings during the next General Council meeting Feb. 28.
Basin water accords
The Klamath Water Recovery and Economic Restoration Act (Senate Bill 133) provides legislation to authorize and implement the Klamath Basin agreements. The bill includes the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA), the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA), both signed in 2010, and the 2014 Upper Klamath Basin Comprehensive Agreement.
Good. The Klamath Tribes are on our side now. Win the war with us and we’ll double the size of your reservation, at least.
And this “Singapore company” just lost their money, because they’re getting thrown the hell out of here with nothing. Defy the will of the American people and see where it gets you, gook-face.
Wow the number of people we are going have to kill keeps growing everyday, this company will hire it own army to keep the land. We American better build some gas chambers and ovens.
Hey Joe (jstp) a lot cheaper just to ammo up.
Yup, just leave ’em lay. Like Clint said in “Josey Whales”, “The critters gotta eat too.”
yup.
According to the national drought monitor, Klamath is not the place to be right now…http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/RegionalDroughtMonitor.aspx?west
…altho, I have had a theory for quite some time now….Weather modification to drive people out of rural areas, and to buy up the land for pennies on the dollar, then stop the weather modification and all is well for the banksters who bought the land. I know these evil people and I would not put it past them, and it fits their M.O.
An absolutely right on assessment.
The Zionist elites and their organized crime cabal know that only hard assets will survive TSHF.
So, they’re driving the prices of valuable land, gold, silver, etc. to rock bottom levels. And buying cheap.
The rain will come back after (if?) they take possession.
I think that ammo is a better hard asset. When TSHF, it will worth more than gold…and it will protect property!
But, as noted earlier, we will have to fend off private mercenary traitors. There may be hordes so make the shots count.
Yea, that’s an interesting take on it, hweinhard. Never thought of that. I agree. I wouldn’t put it past them to do that, either.
Maybe that’s what they are trying to do in California as well.