Questions raised about Weyerhaeuser sale

It has been less than a week since Weyerhaeuser announced the company will be selling its 630,000 acres of Montana timberlands to a private investment company, and Weyerhaeuser officials remain tight-lipped about who or what is purchasing the massive spans of land — a mystery exchange that has prompted speculation from residents, the conservation community, those in the lumber industry and other stakeholders.

Notice of the $145 million cash sale ­— to be completed in the second quarter of 2020 — was posted to Weyerhaeuser’s website on Dec. 17 in a four-paragraph announcement offering little detail of the pending exchange.

“The sale of our Montana acreage is part of our ongoing effort to strategically optimize our timberland portfolio,” Devin W. Stockfish, president and chief executive officer of Weyerhaeuser said in a prepared statement. “The transaction includes a diverse mix of softwood species and an existing 110,000-acre conservation easement which preserves public access in perpetuity.”

While the official announcement from Weyerhaeuser declined to name a buyer, The Western News in Libby reports that Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Peck said during the commissioner meeting Dec. 18 that Georgia-based Southern Pine Plantations is purchasing the property. The company is a real estate, rather than timber, business, he said.

Like many Northwest Montana residents, Peck said he has a number of unanswered questions and concerns about the deal.

How will the sale impact the lumber giant’s mills in Montana and their employees? What are the buyer’s intentions for the land that doesn’t fall within the protected easement? Will the acreage, which primarily stretches from Kalispell, west toward Libby and on down toward the Thompson Falls region, remain open for the thousands who use it to hunt, fish and recreate?

AS TO the first question of lumber mills, Weyerhaeuser’s post claims the company’s three manufacturing mills in Montana will not be affected by the sale - a statement many find peculiar considering the company is selling the very product it needs in order to keep its mills afloat.

“I mean, you can’t have a lumber mill without timber, right?” said Todd Morgan, director of Forest Industry Research at the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

And what is most shocking to Morgan and others, is the price at which the land is being sold.

The buyer is getting a good deal at about $230 per acre. The price is a bargain compared to other sales in the past when Morgan says Weyerhaeuser property has sold for anywhere from $500 to $700 per acre, depending on the land’s potential.

Even in the early 1990s, when Champion International operations left a good number of Montana’s forests void of timber, the company sold more than 850,000 acres of the heavily logged land to Plum Creek Time Co. for $300 an acre.

And according to Weyerhaeuser’s website, the company recently sold a similar-sized parcel of land in Michigan to Lyme Great Holdings LLC in mid- November for about $540 per acre - more than double the price of the acreage sold in Montana.

Prior to that sale, Stockfish relayed the same message, that the sale was part of an “ongoing effort to strategically optimize our timberland portfolio,” which Morgan translates to “just doing business.”

“Buying and selling land is what their business is and mills are a subsidiary business. So they have to make most of their money through land transactions,” Morgan said.

But when considering how much land has been sold for in Montana in the past, Morgan says the price tag on the 630,000 acres may mean Weyerhaeuser has struck some kind of additional deal for continued access to the land’s timber.

“Selling land for that price makes you wonder what else is in the deal that hasn’t been talked about,” Morgan said. “For example, they may have sold it on the condition that they get to continue having access to the timber for their mills.”

Regardless, representatives from other organizations say if they knew the land would sell for that cheap, they would have been putting in their own offers years ago.

“I think plenty of conservation organizations would have been making an offer on that parcel if they knew it had been going for that price,” said Dillon Tabish, spokesman for Region 1 of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “We had no idea Weyerhaeuser was trying to sell it.”

ASIDE FROM wanting to see the mills continue to operate, stakeholders are focused on whether people will continue to have access to the slice of Northwest Montana paradise.

In a letter from the Montana Legislature, several state officials urged the company to keep the private lands open for public use. The document stressed the deal is coming on the heels of the recent landmark passing of the Public Access to Lands Act.

“This Legislature is eager to maintain a strong partnership with the new owner of the timberland you currently hold. Carrying our active, comprehensive forest management is an obligation we have to the people of Montana, and something which provides a mutual benefit,” the letter reads.

But while many are hoping for the best, it’s still a guessing game.

“We don’t know what the new owner’s policy will be, but the potential throughout all these lands is enormous,” said Nick Gevock, conservation director with the Montana Wildlife Federation. “This could mean a loss of hundreds of thousands of acres for hunting and fishing access.”

Gevock said the Montana Wildlife Federation, Montana’s oldest sportsmen-wildlife conservation organization, had been in contact with Weyerhaeuser in recent years regarding the possibility of a conservation easement west of Kalispell in the Weyerhaeuser acreage.

The 7,200-acre area, known as the Lost Trail Conservation Easement, is not only prime for recreation, but is an ideal wildlife habitat that is home to elk, moose, deer, bobcats, lynx and grizzly bears.

Known as Dredger Ridge, the property also provides important public access for walk-in hunters, is essential to landscape connectivity and wildlife corridors and provides a linkage for grizzlies moving between the Northern Continental Divide and Cabinet-Yaak ecosystems.

In a 2018 letter from the Montana Wildlife Federation to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the organization’s executive director wrote, “this is essential for many wildlife species, especially for animals’ ability to adapt to climate change. Development is a continuing threat to habitat connectivity in Northwest Montana, and this easement would help protect this high quality wildlife movement corridor.”

Gevock said he was thrilled with the opportunity to work with Weyerhaeuser on a conservation project, but now he is “unsure of where everything stands,” and also questioned what access loss could also mean for the economy of Northwest Montana.

“This [outdoor activities] is what Northwest Montana is known for. If that goes away, it could be a big issue for the Flathead Valley especially,” Gevock said.

For years, even through the passing of multiple ownership hands, the acreage has mostly remained open for hunters and anglers. Even in 2016, when Weyerhaeuser merged with Plum Creek and Montanans feared the worst for the land, Weyerhaeuser entered into an agreement with FWP to keep the lands open for public use through the agency’s block management program.

As explained by Tabish, through the program, the company would do this in exchange for FWP employees to help patrol and enforce the lands. However, the current agreement is also slated to expire in the second quarter of 2020, at which time, Tabish says it’s up to the new landowner to enter into a new agreement with the agency.

“People recognize that a private company has shareholders and business interests, so those lands might be at risk of being sold for other purposes,” Tabish said. “Up to our director, no one knows who is dealing with those lands, but if access goes away, it would be a seismic shift.”

Reporter Kianna Gardner may be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com. The Western News Editor Derrick Perkins contributed to this report.