George Sexton, conservation director for KS Wild, has attended dozens of timber auctions over the years. He said he goes to ensure the Bureau of Land Management follows its own guidelines and that bidders are aware of ongoing lawsuits.
Now, the BLM is barring the public from timber auctions. On Thursday, Sexton tried, and failed, to watch an auction for the Take a Chance timber sale in southwest Oregon — a move he claims is illegal.
The change has alarmed Sexton and other environmental advocates, who say excluding the public and press from timber auctions limits government transparency and prevents meaningful oversight of public land management. The Bureau of Land Management says the auctions are business meetings, not public events.
"You're excluding interested parties; I have an interest in the auction," Sexton told BLM spokesperson Kyle Sullivan. "You're excluding the public. You're excluding the press. That's tyranny, not democracy.”
Sexton said that the sale includes old-growth forest and critical habitat for the threatened northern spotted owl. He said the policy is another effort by the BLM to exclude the public from timber sales.
"For government to work and for us to have a democracy, the public needs to know what the government is doing," he said. "And that requires openness and transparency, not secret deals behind locked doors with the captains of industry.”
JPR was also denied entry to the auction. Only BLM staff and qualified bidders were allowed to attend.
BLM Spokesperson Kyle Sullivan declined to provide details about the policy change or when it took effect. Representatives with the agency's regional office in Portland did not respond to emails requesting clarification.
Sexton said he was able to attend a meeting in May and was allowed inside after a minor argument with BLM staff.
"Timber auctions are business meetings between purchasers and sellers of BLM timber. They are not public meetings," said Sullivan. "The BLM has a responsibility to ensure that the auction environment welcomes competitive bidding."
An email sent to Sexton by Medford District Manager Elizabeth Burghard in June said individual BLM districts in the region were inconsistently allowing people other than qualified bidders into the auction room.
"In accordance with 43 CFR 5441.1, all auction participants must meet a set of requirements indicating that they are qualified purchasers," Burghard wrote. "In addition, the participants must have submitted a written bid along with a minimum bid deposit for at least one of the sales up for bid at the auction. Moving forward, only those who meet the requirements and have submitted a bid will be allowed to observe the auction."
The regulation cited by Burghard describes the qualifications for a "bidder or purchaser for the sale of timber," but does not address the presence of observers.
KS Wild has filed a new notice with the BLM indicating its plans to challenge the logging project, which includes the Take a Chance sale, under the Endangered Species Act.
Sexton said he was willing to be arrested in an attempt to attend the auction, so he could challenge the BLM's policy in court. But law enforcement at the office wouldn't arrest him unless he acted unruly, which would contradict the federal regulations Sexton was using to claim he could attend the auction in the first place.
"There's no winning," he said. "It's designed to keep the public and the press out and to just have the timber industry and the BLM do their business behind closed doors."
