U.S. govt. ups land leases, forcing some to sell

DETROIT LAKE, Ore. – People who own cabins on national forest land are being forced to sell their homes or fork out the money to pay new government land leases.

In Washington State some cabin owners are facing more than a thousand percent increase on their lease and near Detroit Lake owners’ leases are tripling.

At Stahlman Creek on the Willamette National Forest, 10 percent of owners are putting their cabins up for sale.

A local real estate agent said people are selling their cabins because they don’t own the land, the federal government does and it has decided to triple the lease.

“A lot of people really don’t want to [sell] because the prices are going up,” said Linda McAlister of Green Mountain Real Estate. “They just feel now is the time to get out, because who knows what’s going to happen in the future with them.”

The forest service said cabin owners have been getting a good deal for years. Most people at Stahlman Creek have been paying $600 for an annual lease. Now most will be charged about $1,500 a year.

“It makes it harder to sell them, because people don’t want to pay that high a price,” said McAlister.

At Lake Wenatchee in the state of Washington, however, cabin owners pay $17,000 a year in leases where previously they paid $1,400 a year.

Jennifer O’Leary of the Willamette National Forest said that the price is out of the forest service’s hands. “The CUFA legislation is legislation we are required to implement.

It “is a reflection of the change in the current market values. Whether they’ve gone up, gone down, or stayed the same,” she said.

Many owners declined to be interviewed for this story, because they said they don’t want to go up against the government. Others said they don’t want to upset neighborhood negotiations.

The new lease rates don’t go into effect until January of 2011. In the meantime, neighborhood leaders are working with the National Forest Homeowners Association to lobby Congress to cap lease fees.