霍夫曼森林购买协议Terminates
For Immediate Release
Editor’s Note: The information on this page is outdated and no longer accurate. Getthe most current informationon the future of Hofmann Forest.
The Board of Trustees for the Endowment Fund of NC State University announced today that the purchase agreement for Hofmann Forest has terminated with the buyers unable to finalize the financial contingencies of the contract. As a result, the sale to Resource Management Service LLC and Hofmann Forest LLC will not proceed to closing.
The property will continue to be owned by the Board of Trustees for the Endowment Fund of NC State and managed by the Natural Resources Foundation – for the benefit of academic programs within the College of Natural Resources. The Foundation and the Endowment Board will evaluate appropriate steps to reinitiate a sales process.
Statement from NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson:
“The sole mission of the NC State Natural Resources Foundation is to benefit the College of Natural Resources, its students and its faculty, and the sale of Hofmann Forest has always been about that purpose. We will always strive to make strategic choices that provide the best educational opportunities for students.”
– 30 –
- Categories:
NCSU Leaders and Supporters:
OK, this a nice, terse announcement, with which I could write pages of response, but will desist. Everyone but the NCSU administration thinks the proposed sale of the Hofmann Forest is grievous mistake, betraying all the values and principles of forestry and natural resource management that we teach. It makes NCSU patter about sustainability hollow, undermines our credibility and alumni loyalty and donations, and hurts the reputation of our students.
The sale process was secretive and dishonest; the faculty, students, public, and local citizens were disenfranchised; and the greedy sale of eight decades of painstaking progress in land management to invest in Wall Street or even spend the principal is appalling.
We should not reinitiate a new sale process. We should forget it and apologize to our stakeholders and hope some of them forgive us and return to have pride in (and donations to) the Pack.
数控最高法院拒绝诉讼stop a sale on December 19, presumably based on the existing sale being terminated. However, the Supreme Court did not rule on (or thus dismiss) any of the arguments to perform and Environmental Analysis or follow the NC Constitution requirements for natural resource conservation, so a new lawsuit could be filed if another buyer and sale contract is announced.
So, the university should go back and keep the Hofmann Forest; place a conservation easement on it to keep it intact; consult internal (faculty, students) and external (public, locals, environmental) stakeholders before making any other secret actions regarding the Hofmann Forest.
Our best educational opportunities are to keep and manage the largest educational and research forest in the world, demonstrating innovation and the merits or our natural resource management professions.
The new NC State motto reflects our mantra throughout this debate: Think and do — Teach what you believe; practice what you teach.
Fred Cubbage, Professor