University lands alumni donation of 1,650 acres

BOISE – The University of Idaho is getting its biggest real estate gift ever – a gorgeous, undeveloped 1,650-acre lakefront forest near McCall to serve as an experimental forest for students in the College of Natural Resources.

“I think this is a unique gift in the world,” marveled UI President Tim White.

Dr. Herald Nokes, a retired family physician from McCall, and his wife, Donna, are making the donation, valued at $10 million. They’re both UI alumni, and though Nokes spent his career as a doctor, he holds a UI degree in range management, and forestry is his avocation. For years, he’s managed part of the property as the Nokes Tree Farm.

“Some of my friends and some of my family have said, ‘Why in the world would you do this – why would you give away that?’ ” Nokes told the state Land Board on Tuesday. “I have great admiration for my alma mater. … I love the state of Idaho – I’ve lived here since I was about 1 year old.”

“But really the abiding reason for this gift is the land itself,” he said. “I’ve worked and loved that land for half a century. … As I stand on Timber Ridge, which is the highest point on the property, look at the mountains, forest, look at the elk … I have to decide what’s going to happen to it.”

What he’d like most, he said, is for the land to stay the same. Thanks to a conservation easement over the entire property that he’s granting to the state of Idaho, it will.

“It’s not easy to give away something like this,” Nokes said. “It’s taken us about 15 years to reach this point.”

The property includes the 1,650 acres of forest, which will become the Herald Nokes Family Experimental Forest, to be used by the university for research and education. It also includes a 90-acre lakefront family parcel, which the Nokes family will continue to own and use, but will also be covered by the conservation easement, preventing future development.

The Nokeses are retaining a “life estate,” which means they will continue to manage the property until their deaths, at which point it will pass to the university.

Years ago, said Nokes, he gave a tour of the property to John Hendee, who was then dean of the UI College of Forestry. “He said, ‘Wouldn’t this be a nice experimental forest?’ ” Nokes recalled. “He kind of planted the seed.”

When the UI is operating the experimental forest, any income it generates will first pay for operation and maintenance of the property, and then to scholarships through the Herald Nokes Family Forestry Scholarship Endowment and to “support excellence in teaching, research and outreach in the college.”

Steven Daly Laursen, current dean of the UI College of Natural Resources, said, “This gift is so encompassing – it supports students, faculty, programs and outreach efforts in the College of Natural Resources. The Nokeses’ vision for the future of the university and the state is equal to their generosity. We all will benefit for generations to come from their support.”

All told, including the family parcel, the property includes nearly half the lake frontage on Little Payette Lake, along the lake’s western and southern shores. A little under a third of that lakefront is along the family parcel.

The property also includes frontage on Lake Fork Creek.

The dean said the experimental forest will benefit college programs in forestry, ecology and conservation biology, resource recreation and tourism, wildlife resources, environmental science education, fire ecology and restoration ecology.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said, “Generations of students to come will learn from this.”

The Land Board was so enthusiastic in its approval of the gift that the governor said its members “not only second the motion, but third, fourth and fifth the motion.”

Hours after the Land Board approved the gift Tuesday, the state Board of Education added its unanimous approval.