Students and professors alike gathered at the Raleigh Lake Alumni Center Wednesday to protest the proposed sale of the Hofmann Forest. 

The Hofmann Forest, located in southeastern North Carolina, consists of 80,000 acres of land, about one-fifth the size of Wake County. 

Fred Cubbage, a professor of Forestry and Natural Resources and Forest Economics at N.C. State, discussed the potential buyers.

“We have heard rumors of buyers,” Cubbage said. “They are likely to be timber investment management organizations, which are companies that basically manage forests. They would manage the forest in a way that is not too different from the way we do, but they may take 10 to 15 percent of forest land and develop it for things like houses or crops.”

Cubbage added that the other two potential buyers were rumored to be a real estate company with plans to develop the land and a farmer who may clear the forest entirely with the intent of raising crops.

The forest is a major resource for the forestry department at N.C. State, according to Cubbage.

“It’s an educational research forest for the College of Natural Resources and N.C. State Department of Natural Resources,” Cubbage said.

According to Dean Mary Watson, the University would be able to continue to use the land. However, opponents of the sale believe that the university and students will have diminished access to the forest over time. 

Sagar Patel, a junior in business administration, attended the protest yesterday along with other students. 

“The overall goal of the protest is to have the Board of Trustees hear our voice and that there are people who care for the forest and want it to stay,” Patel said. 

Currently, more than 1,000 people have signed the petition opposing the sale of the Hofmann Forest, many of them students and professors.

While at the protest, demonstrators placed 500 baby pine trees in front of the Alumni Building where the board of trustees was meeting.

The trees represented the loblolly pines growing at the Hofmann Forest 

N.C. State is not the only school with forest land that is used for revenue.

“Harvard Investment Group invested in forests all over the world, even in places like Bolivia and Ecuador,” Cubbage said. “Harvard’s forestry makes excellent returns on their forest investments. 

Cubbage added that it is likely the sale may go through “I am hopeful they will recant and decide that this is a bad demonstration of sustainable development,” he said.