It’S A Low-Friction, High-Yield Blessing

Environmental conflict often makes for good news copy. Conservation groups accuse the government of allowing corporations to rape the landscape. Industry leaders accuse “eco-twinkies” of ruining local economies by trying to lock them out of public lands.

It might make for good copy but it’s not good news.

One conservation group, though, is quietly going about its business with a completely different approach. Rather than throwing verbal bombs, the Nature Conservancy is trying to make peace.

The conservancy realizes that, in each of its projects, gaining public acceptance is crucial to reaching its conservation goals. It gains that acceptance by listening carefully to local residents and crafting land-management plans that address their concerns. Residents, then, are much more likely to support the conservancy’s environmental goals.

That’s the case in Boundary County, Idaho, where the conservancy closed a $1.5 million deal last week to buy a 2,600-acre ranch. It’s the nonprofit group’s largest land acquisition in North Idaho. The ranch covers the narrowest part of the Kootenai River valley. Tucked between the Selkirk and Purcell mountains, it provides wildlife corridors, habitat for endangered species and ample opportunities for wetlands restoration along the river.

But the group also plans to allow farming and ranching across much of the property and is continuing an existing lease with local farmers to raise winter wheat, barley and hay. Cattle grazing will continue everywhere but on the wetlands. Crown Pacific Partners will selectively log the uplands. The deal also gives hunters and hikers new ground to cover and anglers access to four miles of Kootenai River waterfront.

This is an incredible deal for Boundary County, which is notorious for its anti-preservation sentiment. The Nature Conservancy will continue to pay property taxes on the land, and much of the resource-based employment will continue. The hunters, hikers and fishermen may make an even more lasting economic impact on the community.

The conservancy still will be able to reach its goals: to restore 480 acres of wetlands by ending the costly practice of draining poor agricultural land, to offer educational programs for local schoolchildren, to offer training in sustainable farm and forest management for adjacent landowners and to work in partnership with the Kootenai Tribe, whose allotments are interspersed with the ranch’s private lands.

This “good news” story made front-page news for only one day. But the ramifications of this revolutionary deal will be felt for generations. And for that, we are thankful.