SALEM — The eventual buyer of an 82,500-parcel of state-owned coastal forest will be required to provide 40 full-time jobs for a decade, preserve some old growth stands, maintain trees in riparian areas and allow public access to half the forest.

As the deadline to submit acquisition proposals approaches, one key detail is still unknown — how those “public benefit” requirements will be enforced.

A range of parties have expressed interest in buying the large swath of the Elliott State Forest, including conservation groups such as the Audubon Society of Portland and timber companies such as Roseburg-based Lone Rock Resources.

The acquisition plans are scheduled to be released publicly next week, but the enforcement provisions won’t be fully hammered out until after a buyer is selected.

Although prospective buyers have been asked to include enforcement provisions in their acquisition plans, these could differ among bidders.

So it remains to be seen who will assess how well the eventual buyer meets the requirements, and who will step in to require the entity to follow the rules if the buyer is found to be out of line.

“I know it’s kind of squishy,” Department of State Lands Spokeswoman Julie Curtis said last week. “It’s just really hard to say what the proponents are going to say.”

Oregonians will know who submitted plans Wednesday, but will not know the substance of the plans, including suggested enforcement mechanisms, until they are released in full Nov. 22.

The department will evaluate potential buyers’ proposals for responsiveness and pass those that are deemed responsive to the State Land Board for ranking and a final decision.

The board is composed of the governor, treasurer and secretary of state.

The Department of State Lands won’t have a further role in the Elliott Forest property once it is sold to another entity, and so it can’t enforce the requirements.

The proposals have to identify a third party responsible for enforcement — such as a tribe or conservation group — or give the public standing to enforce those requirements.

The department has said that ownership by a land trust “in and of itself” is insufficient to meet the public benefit requirements.

The prospective buyers’ suggested enforcement provisions may factor into the board’s final decision.

“Differences between responsive plans on how to address assurances of enforceability may be a basis for their prioritization and choice,” the department said in response to questions submitted by interested parties earlier this year.

Negotiations will continue after the land board selects the buyer as officials and the buyer work out a purchase and sale agreement.

Department of State Lands Director Jim Paul said last week that prospective buyers submitting plans could choose a default enforcement mechanism — a conservation easement.

Conservation easements typically prohibit certain uses of land by the owner and are held by another party such as a land trust.

The public benefits — excluding the jobs requirement, which lasts for 10 years — would have to continue in perpetuity, according to the department.

Environmental groups and activists have supported keeping the land in public ownership, and several public entities such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Oregon Department of Forestry have expressed interest in buying the property.

As far as assessing whether the buyer has met its obligations down the line, it’s unlikely that the secretary of state, the state’s top auditor, would audit the eventual buyer due to the secretary’s position on the land board.

Molly Woon, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office, said that if the secretary participates in the acquisition decision, the office’s current auditor would recommend that an outside entity conduct an audit.

“We want to avoid auditing anything related to the secretary’s State Land Board responsibilities,” Woon wrote in an email Thursday.

The Department of State Lands is charged with managing the Elliott for the benefit of the Common School Fund, which was designed to provide revenue for schools through timber harvests.

The State Land Board agreed to sell the Elliott in 2015, after the Common School Fund sustained net losses.

The forest won’t be sold to the highest bidder.

Instead, an appraiser determined the fair market value of the land is $220.8 million. As part of the responsiveness requirements, prospective buyers can offer only that exact amount.