Community members made their final case Wednesday and urged a halt to a planned land auction of nine forested parcels surrounding Williams.

A sizeable demonstration during the weekly Josephine County commissioners business meeting — both inside and outside the Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass — was the second in as many weeks.

Community members and coordinators for the Williams Community Forest Project on Wednesday said there was an added sense of urgency, with the auction slated to occur at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, less than 24 hours later. Commissioners — by meeting’s end — were steadfast in their plans for the auction to continue.

While nine parcels, totaling 1,800 acres with a combined value of more than $10.4 million, are up for grabs, of particular issue for the audience is an area dubbed Pipe Fork, which community members began negotiating to purchase four years ago to preserve as a natural area.

Commissioners previously signed a letter of intent to sell Pipe Fork to The Conservation Fund in January 2023, for the Yellow Book Appraisal price of $2,020,000.

In July, commissioners said assurance had not been made by the Bureau of Land Management that the land would be publicly accessible and would not be logged. In September, county appraisers determined the land held more value and moved forward with plans to hold an auction.

During more than two hours of input on Wednesday, citizens — including senior citizens, business owners and several children — pleaded with the three commissioners to revisit negotiations for the community to purchase Pipe Fork.

A Williams resident donning a cowboy hat, who identified himself as Jared, told commissioners he showed up “to look you folks in the eyes.” Potential sale and clear-cutting of land surrounding Williams, the man said, was “a terrible heartbreaking thing … and I just pray you can have heart and have mercy on this community.”

Chas Rogers, a WCFP board member, voiced frustration that four years of negotiations had been abandoned. With two of three commissioners leaving office before January, and commissioner John West the subject of a recall effort, Rogers said incoming commissioners should have a chance to weigh in on the issue.

“The commissioners we started with aren’t here … and you guys do not seem to take a continuum from previous commissioners to present commissioners,” Rogers said.

“You’re not passing on the knowledge or interest in what the community would like to see.”

Taylor Star, executive director of White Oak Farm and Education Center, voiced concern about potential clear-cutting that he said would decimate forest resources and increase fire risk.

“It’s not just about wanting to stop you guys from what you want to do,” Star told the commissioners. “It’s about trying to work together to actually create an economy and an ecology in the forests around Williams that really benefits the county, the local people and the wildlife.”

Tildon Andrews of Williams was one of two children to approach the podium and address commissioners. Andrews said he was “really bothered about the potential sale of the land.”

“Those woods are my backyard, and they’re a rare and biodiverse ecosystem,” he said. “The wild is rapidly disappearing and, by the time I’m an adult, there might not be any left.”

Another youngster, Merit Andrews of Williams, said he was “part of the future generation that will be most affected by this sale.”

“I ask you to please save the old-growth forest for me to enjoy as I grow up,” he said.

“When I am an adult and I look back on this day, I ask, how do you want me to remember it? The day my wild was taken away or the day my government protected what is right?”

Commissioner Andreas Blech pointed out he had only been in office for four months, while the Pipe Fork topic had been in discussion for four years. He told audience members he took issue with comments attacking commissioners and said concerns regarding clear-cutting were unfounded.

“Do we know who’s buying this property? No. It’s at an auction. Do we know how much they’re going to buy it for? No, we don’t know,” Blech said.

“Once it changes hands and it becomes private property — and I believe everybody here in this room believes in private property rights — whether they want to log it, legally, whatever the law allows, or if they want to make it a nature preserve, whatever they want to do, it’s private property, and they should be able to do that.”

Commissioner Herman Baertschiger said he believed the land would be properly managed within state laws by the buyer.

“I don’t know who’s going to buy this property tomorrow. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it. I don’t even know if we’re going to sell it,” he said.

“We have a minimum bid, and if we don’t get the minimum bid, we’re going to still own it, and we’re still going to manage it in the best interest of the citizens of Josephine County.”

Rogers said that after Wednesday’s meeting, WCFP would assess its “next steps.” WCFP members, he said, sent letters to timber companies urging them not to bid on the parcels being auctioned.

“We don’t know if there are any bids — there may or may not be. Maybe the logging companies have backed off. That’s what we’re hoping for,” Rogers said, noting that The Conservation Fund was still “poised to buy the property” but that acquiring of Pipe Fork would require the portion to be unbundled from the Thompson Creek sale.

WCFP board member Cheryl Bruner said the community’s fight to protect Pipe Fork and other forested areas was far from over, despite whatever happens Thursday.

“We’re going to continue to fight even after the auction,” she said.

“If there’s no auction, or if the auction happens and there’s no sale, we’ll continue to meet with the commissioners and say, ‘We want to collaborate.’ We’ve been fighting for four years and we’re gonna fight to the end.”

The auction will take place online.

For more information, visit the Williams Community Forest Project online or via Facebook.