One justification the Board of Forestry gave for proposing to sell the entire Elliott State Forest is the expense of the litigation and settlement fees incurred by lawsuits filed by environmental groups mentioned in this article. 

A recent lawsuit, settling for a reported $340,000, provided justification for the state to sell the contested Elliott State Forest parcels to the Seneca Jones Timber Company for thirty cents on the dollar of appraised value.

The environmental litigation industry has not yet succeeded in protecting Oregon's older state owned forests. They are, however, helping to justify and hasten the sale of these public forests to private timber companies.