The state may add some 29,000 more acres to the 43,000-acre Gilchrist State Forest.

The Oregon Department of Forestry has $10.2 million in funding lined up — $1.98 million in Oregon Lottery-backed bonds, $3 million from the federal Forest Legacy grant and $5.2 million in bonds approved by the Legislature in 2013.

It’s likely, though, to be a poor investment.

The Oregon Department of Forestry ticks off a regiment of reasons why the state forest should grow. Central Oregon forests are at risk of being fragmented into smaller parcels. That hurts wildlife. It could complicate fire protection. And it means the land could be lost as a working forest.

Buying the land would preserve “public access to recreation opportunities. And, in time, a working state-owned forest will provide a steady stream of revenue to local counties,” the department says.

Oh, really?

It’s going to be many years before the trees on the Gilchrist State Forest are mature enough for any kind of sustainable logging effort.

And once they are, will the state be able to cut any down?

It’s very difficult to log for profit or thin for public safety.

It’s the rare exception that a timber sale goes through without lawsuits or other challenges that reshape the sale or stop it. It’s hard to argue that logging or thinning is getting easier.

A state forest is not less immune. Arguably, it could face more difficulty.

There are indeed other advantages to consolidating the land. But the Department of Forestry’s polite marketing arm-twist for the purchase needs a disclaimer. There is no easy path through this wood. Without changes at the federal and state level in forest policy, nobody should get the impression that it’s going to be much of a working forest.