The Manulife Investment Management fund purchased 55,000 acres of timberland in Oregon’s Douglas, Coos, and Curry counties, stretching from Reedsport in the north to Gold Beach in the south. This acquisition is part of the company’s efforts to expand its presence in the region and provide sustainable working forests and farmlands.

The company already manages over 660,000 acres of working forest in Oregon, making it Oregon’s second-largest manager of private timberland. Out done only by Weyerhaeuser, which owns more than 1.5 million acres of western Oregon’s 6.5 million acres of private forestland. Manulife Forest Management Inc. will oversee the daily operations of the coastal range properties, with about 7,200 acres in Douglas County, located near Reedsport. The 55,000 acres of forests in Southwest Oregon will allow greater access for recreation, and investments in harvest carbon offsets.

The investment objective of Manulife’s strategy is to provide investors with an opportunity to invest in timberlands which will be managed to create carbon credits through enhanced sustainable forest management practices which is designed to add to the stored carbon in the forest. The fund intends to earn competitive returns for investors by selling carbon credits, charging for recreation use, and limited timber harvests to capture potential climate benefits.

The Fund is not registered under the Securities Act or the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction, and only sold to “qualified purchasers.” The Fund seeks to include investors from other than the U.S. such as the EU that want to invest in forest carbon credits or offsets.

The carbon credit market operates like a hidden tax that drives up the costs for companies that can’t reduce their unavoidable emissions and have to buy offsetting credits so they can operate, and so elite investors get a high rate of return. This racket is spreading as a worldwide investment option funded by consumers. Manulife wants their offsetting credits to represent actual changes in managing timber harvesting. However, offsetting credit does nothing to reduce emissions, and if sold outside of Oregon, it's a direct steel from consumers to fund investors.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

"The acquisition is part of the company’s efforts to manage sustainable working forests and farmlands, providing both economic and ecological benefits. From the 55,000 acres, approximately 85% of it will be harvested over the next 40-50 years. The other 15% is in regulatory and voluntary set-asides primarily buffers on streams and other features to protect water and conserve wildlife habitat," according to Jeff DeRoss, Manulife Forest Management Manager for Western Oregon.

As of October 2023, Manulife Investment Management’s $11.3 billion timberland investment portfolio spans 5.4 million acres in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Brazil. One hundred percent of its portfolio is certified as sustainable by independent third-party forest certification standards.

The College of Forestry at OSU plans to harvest 60 acres near Cronemiller Lake in the McDonald-Dunn Forest called the Woodpecker Harvest, but is being challenged by Corvallis residents. The harvest is on hold for review of the 2005 plan to challenge the classification of old-growth as 160 years and older.

In the meantime, public forests are under continuous attack from conservationist and environmentalist. The Elliott State Forest, about 82,500 acres, also near Reedsport, is back in the hands of the State Lands Commission trying to push through a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) that will reduce harvesting to unmanageable levels.

The most impact to the forest industry remains the Endangered Species Act and the development of HCP. State Forester Cal Mukumoto recommended supporting the HCP draft to the Board of Forestry. Opposition groups are making a case for some revisions to revitalize the timber industry for the support of rural communities. The state still expects to finalize the HCP by the end of the year, then get federal input in 2025.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2024-07-05 01:53:30

Last Update: 2024-07-04 23:00:56