[env-trinity] Klamath Tribes react to land purchase in former reservation

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.heraldandnews.com/breaking/klamath-tribes-react-to-land-purchase-in-former-reservation/article_6819d6e0-b878-11e4-ac9a-33bdf4300d9a.html
Klamath Tribes react to land purchase in former reservation
By SAMANTHA TIPLER H&N Staff Reporter | Posted: Thursday, February 19, 2015 2:15 pm
A Singapore-based company purchased 197,000 acres of land in Klamath and Deschutes counties this week, including the 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 today.
“This is obviously a disappointment,” Don Gentry, chairman of the Klamath Tribes said 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 Mazama Forest was a key component of that, and for the KBRA.
“Land recovery is an essential bargained-for benefit of the KBRA,” Gentry 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.”
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.”
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 Tribes plans to fully discuss the purchase during the next General Council meeting on Feb. 28.
“The loss of the opportunity to purchase the Mazama Forest certainly challenges the viability of the Agreement for the Klamath Tribes,” Gentry said.
stipler at heraldandnews.com @TiplerHN
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