Weyerhaeuser - Longview Fiasco

[Retread Ted]

I worked on Weyerhaeuser's Millicoma Tree Farm, out of Coos Bay, Oregon for 18 years. About the first 15 years, when hunting season came around, the gatekeeper would hold up the hunters (about 1 mile long line) until the last of the company off-road trucks tied up, on the friday night before season opened. It was somewhat of a fiasco, with an unruly mob of city-dwellers attacking the tree farm, cutting down Weyco trees, starting bonfires during fire season, destroying dirt roads, and littering the property. Some gated ares were closed to driving, so hunters tore down the gates and one year, someone destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, which shut down logging for a day. I don't know about other Weyco tree farms, but suspect that most or all are managed similarly (permits required), but this tree farm is intermixed with blocks of private ownership, BLM, Forest Service, and other lands that are NOT owned by Weyco. They all have to have access to their lands, as there is basically only one road up and down each river, providing access to all of the various owners' lands. In the beginning, much or all of the land was opened to homesteading. Hundreds of people chose blocks to homestead, most of them going broke, and selling out to large logging companies, who ended up selling out to Weyco. That's how Weyco ended up owning blocks of the land that's gated off. In Washington, on the other hand, back in the 1800's a railroad tycoon back east was given the contract to construct a railroad from the midwest to Seattle. Our government deeded blocks of land along the proposed railway to the railroad company. Those blocks of land were much wider than was necessary to construct a railroad, so the construction company sold most of the excess timberland to Frederick Weyerhaeuser, who was his neighbor and a logger back east. That got Weyco his start in the Pacific Northwest. Then he bought other smaller blocks of land from individuals and companies, in order to complete his ownership of the large tree farms that we see today. Sorry for the length of this writing, but I think that knowledge of the issue that you're talking about is a benefit to everyone. And, for the record, I think that this issue could be handled in a much better (for all involved) manner, but also can understand the frustration that a landowner has with people abusing their property.