STATE LAND BOARD TO MEET DECEMBER 13
The meeting includes recognition of the Elliott State Research Forest Advisory Committee in a ceremony featuring Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani 

SALEM, Ore. – The State Land Board will meet in Salem on Tuesday, December 13.  

At 9 a.m., the State Land Board will present the Elliott State Research Forest Advisory Committee with its Partnership Award.  A collection of stakeholders representing diverse perspectives, the Elliott State Research Forest Advisory Committee has worked tirelessly over the past four years to create a framework for the Elliott to become a publicly owned research forest.

Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani will perform two poems in celebration of the Advisory Committee during the award ceremony. The public is welcome to join in person or watch the ceremony livestream on the Department of State Lands YouTube channel.

The Land Board meeting will begin immediately after the award is presented. The Land Board will consider multiple items related to establishing an Elliott State Research Forest under the provisions of Senate Bill 1546. Passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2022, SB 1546 establishes an independent public agency to oversee the Elliott State Research Forest in coordination with Oregon State University. Items before the Land Board for consideration include: 

• Decoupling the Elliott State Forest from the Common School Fund. Decoupling the forest releases the Elliott from its obligation to generate revenue for the Fund. $221 million has been deposited in the Fund to satisfy the forest’s financial obligations to the Fund. SB 1546 requires Land Board approval of decoupling. The Land Board will also consider delineating the specific lands to be included in the research forest. 
   
• Appointment of the initial Elliott State Research Forest Authority Board of Directors. Per SB 1546, the Land Board is responsible for appointing the new agency’s board of directors. The Land Board will consider prospectively appointing nine board members, with appointments effective on Jan. 1, 2024 – the effective date of the new agency. In the interim, appointed individuals would serve as informal advisors to DSL on matters related to the research forest. 
   
• An update on OSU’s Forest Management Plan. SB 1546 requires a forest management plan to be developed by OSU and approved by the State Land Board before July 1, 2023, as one of the prerequisites to the Authority assuming management responsibility on Jan. 1, 2024. OSU will present an overview of the November 2022 working draft of the forest management plan.

The Land Board will also consider appointing Vicki L. Walker to serve a second four-year term as DSL Director. 

The full meeting agenda and additional information about each agenda item are available on the State Land Board meeting webpage. The meeting will also be livestreamed to the DSL YouTube channel. 

The public may submit written testimony or sign up to provide spoken testimony during the meeting. Advance signup is required. The deadline to sign up to testify is 10 a.m. on Monday, December 12. The signup link and testimony information are available on the State Land Board meeting webpage. 

If you need assistance to participate in this meeting due to a disability, please contact Arin Smith at 503-986-5224 or arin.n.smith@dsl.oregon.gov at least two working days prior to the meeting. 


About the State Land Board and the Department of State Lands: The State Land Board consists of Governor Kate Brown, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and State Treasurer Tobias Read. Established by the Oregon Constitution in 1859, the Land Board oversees the state’s Common School Fund. The Department of State Lands is the Land Board’s administrative agency, managing the lands and resources that help fund Oregon’s public schools and protecting the state’s waterways and wetlands for the many benefits they provide.


About Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani: Anis Mojgani was named to a two-year appointment as Oregon's tenth poet laureate by Governor Kate Brown on April 27, 2020.  Born in New Orleans to Black and Iranian parents, Mojgani first called Oregon home in 2004. The author of five books of poetry, he has also done commissioned work for the Getty Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum, and April 2021 will see the premiere of his first opera libretto, “Sanctuaries.” Mojgani has performed at universities, festivals and venues around the globe for audiences as varied as the House of Blues and the United Nations. His work has appeared on HBO, National Public Radio, as part of the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series and in the pages of such journals as Rattle, Platypus, Winter Tangerine, Forklift Ohio and Bat City Review.

First coming to poetry by way of visual arts, Mojgani earned a BFA in Sequential Art from the Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia and has been awarded artist and writer residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, AIR Serenbe, The Bloedel Nature Reserve, The Sou’wester and the Oregon Literary Arts Writers-In-The-Schools. He now serves on the Board of Directors of Literary Arts. Mojgani currently resides in Portland.