By the end of this month, about 3,110 acres of private forestland outside Northwest Portland will become part of Oregon State University’s new research forest.

OSU announced Friday that it’s finalizing its purchase of land northwest of Portland’s Forest Park for $27 million, all of it covered by federal and regional grants.

This area, which OSU calls the Tualatin Mountain Forest, had been managed as a timber plantation by forest products giant Weyerhaeuser Company. As such, most of the trees are no older than 35 years.

OSU leaders say this landscape will become more ecologically diverse under the university’s ownership. The plan is to research what effects different types of logging practices have on tree diseases, pests and fire resilience.

“Here’s this opportunity to, starting with a young forest, to research activities around alternative management practices that build in complexity — both structural complexity, species complexity and fire resilience — in a forested landscape,” OSU Dean of Forestry Tom DeLuca said. “And in a forested landscape that’s accessible for recreation.”

Eventually most of the area will become open to the public, DeLuca said, after the university irons out forest management and recreation plans. OSU will continue working with the Northwest Trail Alliance to allow mountain biking on some trails, as Weyerhaeuser had done under its ownership.

Some research areas may need to be cordoned off, and the university is working with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde to identify culturally significant areas of their ancestral land.

This land acquisition comes a year and a half after OSU suddenly backed away from yearslong plans to manage the Elliott State Forest near the Oregon Coast as a research forest.

The Department of State Lands took over management of the Elliott, and it hasn’t finalized research plans for the 83,000 acres of temperate rainforest. The department is considering creating a research consortium, which may include some OSU researchers, per its draft operations plan.

Supported by federal, Metro funding

OSU has different plans for its newly acquired Tualatin Mountain Forest than the work it initially planned for the Elliott, DeLuca said. For one thing, the Elliott is much bigger. For another, OSU will have complete ownership of this land, so it will have fewer constraints on the types of research it could do, including how much and where it could log.

Logging will primarily help cover the costs of forest management and research, DeLuca said. After five years, OSU estimates, expenses will amount to about $350,000 annually, while logging will bring in about $420,000.

“It’s not going to be a cash cow because of the way that we intend to manage it,” DeLuca said, “Which is really focused on managing for resilience.”

Oregon State walks away from Elliott Forest plan, but backers say forest in good hands

That means smaller clearcuts and longer rotations than when the land was owned by Weyerhaeuser, allowing trees to age beyond 40 years before they’re cut. OSU will study how these management practices affect timber productivity, water quality and carbon storage.

Trees store carbon in their bark, limbs and foliage — and the larger they are, the more carbon they hold — making older trees a critical tool in combating climate change.

DeLuca also envisions the forest as an educational opportunity, where children from the Portland area’s K-12 schools can spend field trips learning about trees and forestry.

The Tualatin Mountain Forest will become the 10th research forest that OSU owns and manages. Of its upfront costs, $23.5 million is coming from the federal Forest Legacy Program, and Metro’s 2019 Parks and Nature Bond Measure is covering the remaining $3.5 million.

A conservation nonprofit, Trust For Public Land, helped facilitate OSU’s purchase. The university plans to complete its purchase by mid-May.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/09/osu-tualatin-mountain-forest/