Farm’S Next Phase Acreage Will Become Refuge For Wildlife

Boundary County farmer Albert “Digger” Thorman is working dawn to dusk, planting wheat and timothy. He’s delayed having heart surgery so he can sow seeds one last time.

The federal government is about to pay him $818,616 for an easement that will transform his 756 acres into wildlife habitat. The flatlands and forest adjoin property acquired by the state last year. Together, the parcels will create a 2,200-acre refuge for ducks, moose, bears and other creatures just south of the Canadian border.

Thorman and the state both took advantage of the Wetlands Reserve Program sponsored by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The program was a godsend for Thorman. He faced low wheat prices and a desire to retire.

“You can’t sell a farm,” he said. “This is a good way out.”

His needs dovetailed with those of the Wetlands Reserve Program, which is meant to restore a fast-dwindling kind of habitat. The farms along the Kootenai River are especially desirable because they adjoin the Idaho Panhandle National Forests and are on waterfowl flyways. The land regularly flooded before Libby Dam was built.

When retiring farmer Deon Hubbard sold his property to the north, he took advantage of both the wetlands program and an offer from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to buy the property. The result was the Boundary Creek Wildlife Management Area. This summer the department will work with Ducks Unlimited there, creating an irrigation system that will keep the land flooded.

That won’t be an option on Thorman’s land, state biologist Pat Cole said. Because the state doesn’t have money to buy that property, it has no authority to maintain a water system there.

The state used Bonneville Power Administration cash to buy the Hubbard land. That isn’t available for the Thorman property, Cole said.

“But that’s still very valuable habitat,” he said. “In some years, the wetlands will be extensive. Shrubs and trees will eventually re-establish themselves on the flood plain. The uplands will be protected for big game, grizzly bears and non-game species.”

Over the next few years, the Natural Resources Conservation Service will plant grasses, trees and shrubs to jump-start nature’s reclamation process.

The Wetlands Reserve Program is not universally appreciated. Boundary County commissioners are among those who worry about the loss of the family businesses and tax dollars.

As for his fellow farmers, Thorman said, “A lot of people don’t like it, but they don’t blame me.”

Julian Bucher, who owns the next farm along the river’s west side, has considered selling a wetlands easement. He decided against it.

“I don’t think it’s all that good a deal,” he said. “The government pays $1,000 an acre for crop land and $650 for pastureland. The only control you have is access, and you still have to pay the taxes.”

The county has had so little experience with land in conservation easements that assessor David Ryals can’t tell farmers for sure if their taxes will go up or down. Thorman does know he’ll have to pay 10 years of back taxes on the timberland, for which he’s been getting a tax break.

Basically, Thorman said, the land will be recreation property. If Fish and Game doesn’t find a source of money to buy it, some nature-lover with deep pockets could do so. Or someone could buy it for hunting - though, as Bucher pointed out, there’s not a lot of demand for private game preserves that are next to national forests.

Bucher fears that government land deals can inflate farmland prices. He worries that so many farmers will leave the Kootenai River Valley that there no longer will be seed and equipment suppliers in Bonners Ferry.

He’s not fretting about having a wetland next door, though he expects he’ll have more water to deal with, and more alfalfa-gobbling ducks.

“When you look at what can happen on a neighbor’s place, going into wetland reserve is fairly down on the list of bad things,” Bucher said. “It could be developed into some sort of summer resort with all kinds of traffic. It could turn into some anti-government enclave.”