County Obtains Slavin Land For Conservation Futures Program Enables Purchase Of Wetlands Area

After three years of negotiations, Spokane County officially acquired the 628-acre Slavin property through its Conservation Futures Program.

The county purchased the land from resident Jim Slavin, closing the deal last week, said Steve Horobiowski, a planner for the county Parks and Recreation Department.

Spokane County paid $1.2 million for the land, southwest of Spokane and a mile west of the intersection of U.S. Highway 195 and Washington Road.

Slavin will also receive $485,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which negotiated a protective wetlands easement for the land.

Slavin donated $100,000 to a conservation futures endowment fund. The donation will go to purchase more land the county would like to acquire.

Currently elk use the woods as calving grounds each spring. Ducks, geese and swans skid onto the ponds during their annual migrations.

“Needless to say, we are happy about this,” said Wyn Birkenthal, the outgoing Parks and Recreation director.

The county collects roughly $1 million per year through the Conservation Futures Program. Voters extended the conservation futures tax, a property tax, in 1997.

The owner of a $100,000 home pays an extra $6 in property tax each year to fund the program.

The program is designed to protect wildlife habitat, particularly when it is threatened by development or logging.

The Diamond S Ranch was one of more than 60 properties evaluated by a committee shortly after the public vote.

Slavin and his wife, Joanne, bought the ranch in 1965 from the Hartmeier family, which had owned it since 1890. The Hartmeier’s turn-of-the-century brick house still stands near the center of the ranch, along with graying sheds, coops and barns that likely will be preserved.