The Oregon State Parks and Recreation Commission voted to give two property projects a preliminary green light at its business meeting Wednesday, November 20 in Corvallis, Oregon and asked staff to return to a future meeting with information for a final vote. The first approval affected the potential acquisition of property in Grant County, known as Grouse Mountain Ranch. The second approval affects a series of exchanges of property and money with Bandon Biota, a private land holding entity owned by Michael Keiser, owner of Bandon Dunes and other golf courses. Bandon Biota proposed to receive 280 acres of the 878-acre Bandon State Natural Area to help create a new walk-in golf course. According to state rules, when an outside party initiates a land exchange, the proposal as a whole must provide overwhelming benefit to Oregon’s state park system. In return for receiving 280 acres of the Bandon property, the state park system would receive 208 acres of private property in the Bandon area, $300,000 worth of help controlling gorse — an invasive plant affecting parts of Bandon State Natural Area and other south coast parks — and $2.95 million to fund two other state park purchases. Of that amount, $450,000 would be used to match a federal grant for a governmental entity to acquire 10 oceanfront acres at Whales’ Cove in Lincoln County, and $ 2.5 million would be used to fund a portion of the Grouse Mountain Ranch acquisition.
