Klamaths: Timberland sale jeopardizes water pacts

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – The chairman of the Klamath Tribes said the unexpected sale of private timberlands the tribes had hoped to regain to rebuild their lost reservation jeopardizes agreements to settle long-standing battles over water.

Chairman Don Gentry said Friday a key provision of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement is funding so the tribes can buy 140 square miles of lodgepole pine. It also lays out ways to divide water between protected fish and farms in times of drought.

Last week, Fidelity National Financial Ventures announced it had sold the assets of Cascade Timberlands LLC, including 300 square miles of timberlands in Deschutes and Klamath counties, to Whitefish Cascade Forest Resources LLC, based in Singapore. Fidelity National received a distribution of $63 million from Cascade at closing.

Gentry said the tribes had an option to buy, but it expired.

Gentry said the tribes’ participation in the agreement depends on regaining that land or some substitute.