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To protect the land, they bought it Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming Dan Kellogg, left, president of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, and Bruce Sargent, owner of the Buckhorn Springs resort, tour a 160-acre parcel purchased by a consortium to save the trees from being harvested by the former owner, Douglas County Lumber Co. The conservancy has agreed to watch over the acreage. By Paul Fattig ASHLAND � Bruce Sargent would be the first to admit that he doesn�t share the perspective of many private property holders within the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. With many of the landowners expressing concern that creating the 52,000-acre site early last summer would infringe on their property rights, Sargent and his wife, Leslie, have welcomed it with open arms. "We woke up one morning to find ourselves inside a national monument � and we were real happy about that," he said. But the Sargents, who own 120 acres centered by the historic Buckhorn Springs retreat, were worried about the Douglas County Lumber Co.�s plans to log its adjacent 160-acre parcel within the monument. In fact, they were sued last year by the firm that wanted � but was denied � access across the Buckhorn Springs property to log its timber. They resolved the issue late last month: With the help of a few friends, they bought the 160-acre parcel for nearly $180,000 and placed it under a conservation easement to prevent the trees from being harvested for commercial purposes. The Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, a nonprofit group formed in 1978 to help protect local farms and forests, has agreed to watch over the acreage. The monument is on Bureau of Land Management property in the mountains a dozen miles east of Ashland. "As soon as I knew the only way to really protect it (the 160 acres) was to buy it, I started calling friends, relatives and neighbors," Sargent said. He urged them to either donate directly to the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, earmarking the funds for buying the property, or to the nonprofit Buckhorn Mineral Springs Inc. About $70,000 was raised through that process. The rest came from Friends of Buckhorn, a limited-liability corporation in which a dozen people contributed from $5,000 to $50,000 each. The 160-acre parcel is now owned jointly by Buckhorn Mineral Springs and Friends of Buckhorn. "This is an ideal solution," said Dan Kellogg, conservancy president. "The monument doesn�t affect private property. That�s why there is now a conservation easement on the property. Otherwise, there is nothing to prevent logging the property right now. So this worked out real well." Loren McClure, chief operating officer for the Sutherlin-based lumber firm, said the company is content with the arrangement. "We had originally bought that property to harvest the timber," he explained, noting it had been a short-term investment. "But that wasn�t practical because of the environmental influence placed on it by the people in the area. "We probably wouldn�t want to repeat it, but it worked out well for us." As a result of the purchase, an important deer and elk winter range has been preserved, Sargent said, noting the parcel retains its private property status. Trees on the property will be harvested only if removal is required for forest health, he said. "It would have to be a devastating situation, such as getting a pocket of beetles out so it wouldn�t ruin the rest of the forest," he said. "You want natural things to take their course. "But, if we did a bad job of fire suppression and caused a beetle problem, then humans should step in and try to save what was left," he added. "But the philosophy is to let nature take its course." The owners have reserved the right to build a structure on the parcel to be used as an educational center to focus on environmental issues, he said. Under the agreement, the conservancy will monitor the property to ensure that the easement is not violated, explained Alex Dykema, the group�s executive director. "But it will remain privately owned by the consortium," Dykema said. "We just have the right to enforce the easement restrictions." "This will be a complement to the monument � we all win with this," Kellogg said. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.