Weyerhaeuser sells 140,000 acres to Campbell Group
By CASSANDRA PROFITA, The Daily Astorian, 8/18/2009 [here]
The pending sale of 140,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser timberland ties a quarter of Clatsop County’s total acreage to a wide array of profit-seeking investors in the global economy.
It also links the North Coast to a sweeping trend in timberland ownership, wherein insurance companies, pension and mutual fund managers direct land-use decisions based on what will deliver the most profits to investors.
Weyerhaeuser Co. is selling almost all of its timberland in Clatsop County to an entity affiliated with The Campbell Group LLC, a Portland-based timberland investment company.
The sale is expected to close this month, and does not include Weyerhaeuser’s Warrenton sawmill or the acreage near Seaside and Cannon Beach…
The Campbell Group is one of the largest timberland investment management organizations (TIMOs), which help investors avoid corporate taxes and long-term capital gains. The tax savings give TIMOs an economic advantage over corporations like Weyerhaeuser in managing timberland.
The Campbell Group already manages 2.85 million acres and $5.3 billion in timberland assets as a subsidiary of an international investment firm, Old Mutual Asset Management of London. …
Gary Lettman, economist for Oregon Department of Forestry, said timber companies like Weyerhaeuser have been shedding timberland rapidly over the past 10 years, as well as contracting out the jobs that they used to keep in-house. Timber companies used to own timberland and sawmills and had an incentive to keep both operations going. Now, timberland management organizations can decide whether sending logs to the mill is the most profitable use of their asset. … [more]