Much of our most scenic, privately held land in the Pacific Northwest is being bought by outside investors. It is one of the costs of globalization and high-tech communications - long distance, instant shifts of capital. But it seems to me it's a trend that places private financial gain well above considerations of the public good.

Bob Burns, Pendleton-based farmland appraiser, said the trend of outside investors buying farmland and forestland started in the Midwest 20-some years ago, "outside" meaning buyers from outside of agriculture and from other geographic locales. These outsiders are driven partly by a desire to abandon the volatile stock market for safer money havens and partly by desire for country retreats and rural recreation. The national credit crunch has dampened some investments. But in any case, the trend that began in the Midwest has reached the Northwest and northeast Oregon. Of course the scenery of Wallowa County and of central Oregon have long drawn interest and cash from outside buyers. But the trend has gotten to scenic parts of Umatilla, Union, Grant and Baker counties.

• A longtime locally-owned ranch just north of Pendleton recently sold to a Willamette Valley party with apparently no farm background.

• Pendleton lawyer Steve Corey said he's seen a rising number of outside investors buying mountain land in this region. Corey, who handles many real estate and land use cases, said one investor, from Seattle, wants to buy a cattle ranch with timber in order to conduct scientific experiments.

• Andy Vanderplatt, of Farm Credit Services in Pendleton, said a couple of ranches south of Pilot Rock have been sold to non-farmer buyers. He said non-ag buyers from Bend and from Portland have called to ask prices of wheatland because of high prices in the wheat market.

• Appraiser Bob Burns said an investor from Boise bought Umatilla County wheatland in the Conservation Reserve Program because he understood he could have a 5-6 percent return on his investment. In the CRP, the landowner receives federal payments for planting the ground to a cover crop to combat erosion.

• Burns said that after a Grant County timberland owner said he was open to selling, a fellow came to the owner to say that a party from Las Vegas would pay the $2 million price because he wanted to stop playing the stock market.

• Pendleton realtor Kal Garton said he continually gets calls from Willamette Valley people about buying farmland because of population congestion in the valley.

• A developer from Bend has bought 300 acres near Walla Walla for a golf course and other development.

• Jim Whitney, Pendleton realtor, said recently he was working on sale of a 7,000-plus-acre ranch on the John Day River to an outside investor.

• Carter Kerns, a member of the Oregon Fish & Wildlife Commission, said an outside investor bought a ranch near La Grande just for elk hunting.

• Investors from California and the East bought former Kinzua Corporation timberland in Wheeler County for fee hunting.

• Mike Nelson, Baker City realtor, said interest in recreation lands in Baker County has been so high that the land inventory is down. He said farmland near Sparta that might have gone for $350 an acre 10 years ago is now listed for $1,000 and higher.

Some ranchers have been willing to keep their land on the market for three to five years until a buyer arrives on the scene. And it should be pointed out that Umatilla County has not seen a lot of its farmland ownership flee to the outside, thanks in part to sky-high wheat prices.

Casey Applen, who runs the nationwide Farmseller service for the Capital Press farm newspaper in Salem, said folks in the Northwest real estate field believe that Baker City is destined to be Oregon's next Bend. That is, Baker's scenery and relatively low land prices will bring to that area a population growth similar to what has hit Bend. Applen said real estate agents in the Northwest see two areas as especially hot now among buyers: Land north of Prineville, and south of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He said buyers look consistently for certain traits on a piece of land - scenery, opportunities for hunting, enough water and ample medical facilities. But one real estate agent observed that some outside investors are so wealthy they can employ a pilot to get them to a certain hospital.

Buyers wanting land in Oregon for hunting look for 160-acre parcels because Oregon's hunting tags are conditioned on 160-acre units.

Those wanting land in northeast Oregon have an advantage in that rural lands here generally are priced lower than rural lands elsewhere. And those wanting scenic recreation lands in general are aided by a change in the law that allows property trades. A program called 1031 exchanges shields buyers and sellers from big tax hits by letting them roll revenue from property sales into other properties as long as they meet IRS deadlines for doing so.

It seems to me that this trend of outside investors buying farm and forest lands brings problems.

One is that it drives up land prices on that acreage which is important to the economies of rural communities. Once a guy with deep pockets comes to buy his country get-away, it becomes a lot harder for local farmers and woodland owners to add to their acreages. Pendleton appraiser Bob Burns fears that the lure of riches will entice some farmers and ranchers to sell. Those ag producers spend money in a community and take part in the life of a town.

Another drawback is that public access overall to rural lands seems to be harder to come by after outside investors have taken over. Carter Kerns of the Oregon Fish & Game Commission said outside landowners seldom work with game biologists on numbers or movement of deer or elk the way most ranchers act as partners with the state agency.

I believe that land being farmed is important for a few reasons. Farm employment helps rural economies. Experienced landowners manage the soil so as to lessen erosion. Farmland provides open space which helps make the Northwest one of the most livable regions. Oregon's official policy is to encourage farmland to stay farmland. A special tax assessment on farmland, geared to land income, is granted to any landowner who is trying to make a profit in farming. On farmland of 30 or more acres, gross farm income must be at least $3,000 a year to qualify.

In some cases, outside investors continue ag activity on the land and sometimes they don't. Problems come up when a person unfamiliar with farm or forest land moves in to take over. A veteran Umatilla County ag producer who sold his ranch a few years ago said the outside buyer started by hiring the wrong manager for the ranch and was wary about working with his new neighbors. The ag producer said it's hard for most outsiders to understand the fragile nature of soils on rangeland in this region when it comes to managing the grazing of livestock.

I can understand why a cattle rancher in northeast Oregon might want to sell. The long-time Umatilla County producer listed several factors - narrow profit margins and continuing price inflation on petroleum and other expenses, difficulty in attracting and keeping reliable employees, problems getting medical insurance, increasing debt load in the course of buying more grazing land and, finally, growing older.