The Coos Bay District of the Bureau of Land Management sold two timber sales at an oral auction Friday, June 29. The 5.4 million board feet of timber, worth approximately $1.2 million, supports working landscapes across the West. Seneca Sawmill Company was the high bidder for the “Cat Skinner” commercial thin timber sale. The timber is located on Oregon and California Revested (O&C) Lands in Douglas County. Southport Forest Products, LLC was the high bidder for the “Shark Bait” timber sale, located on O&C Lands in Curry County. The money from the two timber sales is deposited into the federal O&C fund, which in turn is shared with the 18-western Oregon counties that contain O&C lands. These counties receive 50 percent of the receipts from the sale of forest products off of O&C lands each year. The Oregon and California Railroad Revested Lands, known as the O&C Lands, lie in a checkerboard pattern through eighteen counties of western Oregon. These lands contain more than 2.4 million acres of forests with a diversity of plant and animal species, recreation areas, mining claims, grazing lands, cultural and historical resources, scenic areas, wild and scenic rivers, and wilderness. It takes approximately 16,000 board feet of lumber to frame a 2000 square foot home, this means that one million board feet of timber is enough to build approximately 63 family sized residential homes. For additional information on the Bureau of Land Management’s timber program, please visit https://www.blm.gov/or/resources/forests/index.php
