Global investment companies have quietly acquired tens of thousands of acres of historically open timberland in Washington’s Wahkiakum and Pacific counties – and they’re locking the gates behind them, cutting off roads that hunters, hikers, and off-road riders have used for generations.The story playing out along the Elochoman River Valley is a preview of what’s happening across the Pacific Northwest. Firms like American Forest Management, which oversees 5.7 million acres of forest across the Americas, now control hundreds of thousands of acres of what was once working-class recreational land – and they’re answering to institutional investors, not local communities. At the center of the dispute is a road known locally as “The 500” – the Elochoman Mainline, which runs north along the Elochoman River into Lewis County. It’s the only practical land route into tens of thousands of acres of prime backcountry. Under previous corporate timber owners like Crown Zellerbach and Weyerhaeuser, the road was open or minimally restricted. Working-class families drove it to hunt elk, fish, and explore. Now, the road is gated. “When the gates went in, maybe they’d open up for two weeks for access, and then they’d shut it off,” said Wahkiakum County Commissioner Dan Cothren, who spent decades in the logging industry. “And when these different groups came in and bought it, they’d all have different rules.” American Forest Management’s regional manager, Marisa Bass, oversees roughly 255,000 acres of timberland across Washington and Oregon. She told The Columbian that access decisions are made by the firm’s clients – anonymous institutional investors – not by the managers on the ground. “By and large, we follow the direction of our clients. It is their land. We just manage it,” Bass said. She declined to identify which clients control access in Wahkiakum and Pacific counties or to specify which parcels are open or closed. The Washington Department of Natural Resources acknowledged the problem but said its hands are tied: private landowners cannot be compelled to allow public access. The human cost is real. Wahkiakum is Washington’s second-poorest county. For many families there, elk hunting isn’t a hobby – it’s protein in the freezer and a tradition passed down through generations of timber workers. Locking the forest isn’t just a recreational inconvenience; it’s an economic and cultural blow to communities that built their lives around those woods. “Why can’t I go in there?” said Shawn Jacob, a Wahkiakum County native who ran into an American Forest Management “No Trespassing” sign at a spot he’d hunted for nearly two decades. The broader pattern is what should concern every off-roader paying attention. Wall Street discovered in the 1980s and 1990s that timberland makes an excellent asset-class investment. Corporate consolidation accelerated through the 2000s and 2010s. As ownership passed from regional timber companies to global portfolio managers, the relationship between the land and the people who live next to it eroded. The roads stayed, the gates multiplied, and the locals were left on the outside looking in. What’s happening in Wahkiakum County is happening in logging communities from Northern California to Montana – and it’s a problem that doesn’t have a clean regulatory fix. Organizations like BlueRibbon Coalition and the Public Lands Foundation have fought similar battles on federal and state lands – but private timberland closures operate in a legal gray zone where access advocates have far fewer tools. For now, the gates stay locked, The 500 stays gated, and the families who once “jumped in a rig and took off in the backwoods” are looking for other roads. Source: The Columbian
Wall Street's Timberland Grab Is Locking Hunters and Off-Roaders Out of the Pacific Northwest
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