SOS Forests

Bribery In Action: Mt. Hoodgate

In September, 2006 SOS Forests reported on Mt. Hoodgate, a sweetheart bailout package for a multi-million dollar company and its tycoon owner [here]. The Oregonian reported it too, in a full-color editorial that called for the American taxpayers pony up the cash and land to buyout/tradeout a private company.

Well, it happened. S. 22, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, was passed Sunday by Harry Reid and the US Senate, their very first action of 2009. The entire Act is 1,264 pages and may be downloaded [here].

I haven’t read the whole thing yet (it’s 1,264 pages long), but right there on pages 62 to 66 is the sweetheart landswap with the millionaire, laid out in black and white or more properly red ink for taxpayers. All that is missing is the quid pro quo that sleazed into Sen. Ron Wyden’s back pocket.

SEC. 1206. LAND EXCHANGES.
4 (a) COOPER SPUR-GOVERNMENT CAMP LAND EXCHANGE.—
6 (1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection:
7 (A) COUNTY.—The term ‘‘County’’ means
8 Hood River County, Oregon.
9 (B) EXCHANGE MAP.—The term ‘‘exchange map’’ means the map entitled ‘‘Cooper
11 Spur/Government Camp Land Exchange’’,
12 dated June 2006.
13 (C) FEDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal
14 land’’ means the approximately 120 acres of
15 National Forest System land in the Mount
16 Hood National Forest in Government Camp,
17 Clackamas County, Oregon, identified as
18 ‘‘USFS Land to be Conveyed’’ on the exchange
19 map.
20 (D) MT. HOOD MEADOWS.—The term ‘‘Mt.
21 Hood Meadows’’ means the Mt. Hood Meadows
22 Oregon, Limited Partnership.
23 (E) NON-FEDERAL LAND.—The term
24 ‘‘non-Federal land’’ means—

1 (i) the parcel of approximately 770
2 acres of private land at Cooper Spur identified as ‘‘Land to be acquired by USFS’’
4 on the exchange map; and
5 (ii) any buildings, furniture, fixtures,
6 and equipment at the Inn at Cooper Spur
7 and the Cooper Spur Ski Area covered by
8 an appraisal described in paragraph
9 (2)(D).

In September of 2006 we reported that the US Government Accountability Office investigated the deal, and the investigators had serious problems with the land appraisals. It seems the appraised land values on the acres the private company, Mt. Hood Meadows Oregon, Limited Partnership, wishes to convey to the government were hugely overstated.

The parcel of land that the private company wants to exchange is roughly 770 acres of fresh clearcuts. It is almost worthless. The land used to belong to Hood River County, up until a few years ago, when the private company swapped their Dog River 850 acres for HRC’s 770 acres. The HRC Forestry Department had previously clearcut 80 to 90 percent of the 770 acres over the last 20 or so years.

At the time of the land swap, the company was led to believe they could put a destination resort on the clearcut land, a land use the county had denied them on the Dog River property. Then the old switcheroo was pulled by HRC, and the company was left holding a bag of clearcut land they couldn’t use.

Business is business. Everybody went into the deal open-eyed. If both parties’ vision was clouded by greed, it is their own fault. If there were contract faults or mis-performances, then sue. Don’t ask the American taxpayers to bail out millionaires!

However, Oregon’s Congressional Delegation did exactly that, setting it up via S. 22 so that American taxpayers bail out the company. S. 22 calls for swapping 120 USFS acres in Government Camp for the 770 acres in HRC. The problem is, the 770 acres is nearly worthless, and the Government Camp acreage is worth millions.

Furthermore, the USFS has no desire for the clearcuts. They already have enough of that. The 770 acres does not block them up, but spreads Federal ownership out into private lands in an intrusive smear. This is in direct opposition to their Congressionally mandated land trade/acquisition policies.

The 770 acres has no special resource values. If it did at one time, the people of HRC took care of that by clearcutting it. If the 770 acres still has resource values, then the clearcuts didn’t impair them, and there is no need for the government to acquire the clearcuts to “protect” anything special.

The whole deal is out of the norm for USFS land swaps, to say the least. Frankly, the whole deal is a scam to enrich the rich at taxpayers’ expense. The actual parcels are just symbolic fronts for vast sums to be drained from the Federal Treasury to wealthy donors and to Ron Wyden.

Quid pro quo. You jam money at the Senator and he will reach into the Federal Treasury and pay you back a hundred-fold with the taxpayer’s land and money. That’s the way the bribery game works. He’ll write a special sweetheart law just for you, if you reward him handsomely for it.

Government land for sale or trade cheap, to the land sharks who play the game.

Note: more to come on S. 22. It is 1,264 pages after all, and there is enough sleaze in it to choke an elephant.