When hopeful politicians tour their prospective districts, stumping for votes, a common approach is to boast about just how well they know the ins and outs of the district. They might name-drop or mention pressing issues, for example, all in the name of proving that they're the most well-versed candidate and the most dedicated to the concerns of the constituents they hope to serve. Well, that's usually the case anyway.
When it comes to Rep. Lori Chavez DeRemer, the Clackamas County Republican who now represents Oregon's 5th Congressional District — including Bend — she might do well to try a little harder in the "I know my district so well" camp, because recent comments make her sound late to the party.
Earlier this month, Chavez DeRemer "sounded the alarm," via messaging on her website and social media channels, that a Chinese businessman is the owner of a large swath of Oregon land — including nearly 33,000 acres of Bull Springs Skyline Forest. The fact that a Chinese man, who made his money in online gaming and now lives in California, owns a large tract of land in Oregon is no shock to people who live in these parts. He's owned it since 2015, and does, in fact, have it up for sale. What's more, Chavez DeRemer's initial press release stated with alarm that the owner is a member of the Chinese Communist Party — a designation he actually gave up when he moved to the U.S.
At least two local nonprofits, the Deschutes Land Trust and Central Oregon LandWatch, are in the midst of an ongoing effort to purchase that land from the owner in hopes of preserving it for conservation — and ideally for most of us, recreation. We'd love to say that the effort is nearing completion, and that Skyline Forest will soon be preserved in trust for all people to enjoy, but we're not there yet. Where we actually are: Seeing our representative in Congress, who just discovered a fun fact about one of the largest swaths of undeveloped private forest land in the U.S., using it as a racist dog whistle to drum up support for a bill that aims to ban Russia and China from owning land in the U.S — a bill which is sure to go nowhere, and looks like the type of legislating that does nothing for the people in her district.
While Chen Tianqiao and his company, Shanda Group, have endeavored to cut many of the trees on that land and have kept the tract closed to the public since 2022 — to the annoyance of many a cyclist — things could be worse. What is now a private forest could, in theory, be given over to another owner who might aim to change its zoning and develop it into a tract of many homes. Or, it could one day be the site of an ultra-exclusive collection of homes — both options further draining groundwater resources and increasing fire risks.
Being Chinese, in other words, is not an automatic prescription for poor land management. We hope for the day when a new owner opts to preserve this precious forestland for conservation, but in the meantime, using a newly discovered (to Chavez DeRemer) fact about the ownership of a forest to stir up geopolitical concerns is pretty poor, even for a Portland politician who doesn't know much else about Central Oregon.
Some of the more politically minded among us had a hunch that when Bend became part of Congressional District 5 several years ago, due to redistricting, it could very well be a Portland area politician who would represent us — and with that, the needs of our particular part of Oregon would fall by the wayside. We just didn't know it would come so clearly into focus in talks about a private forest and a Chinese businessman.
