DNR land exchanges
The scenario
Sportsmen have been living many of their outdoor dream trips on borrowed land.
They’ve come to expect open access to private timber corporation properties that seemed “almost” public.
Recently, more than 140 years after Congress granted millions of acres of federal land to railroads as an incentive to developing the West, sportsmen are finding they could lose their “checkerboard” playgrounds and much of the wildlife they produce.
Private timber companies are selling some of their choice lands to developers.
Changing uses of private timberlands are forcing the state Department of Natural Resources to either “block up” Central Washington lands for more efficient management or sell out and consolidate their land assets in Western Washington, a move that would accelerate private development on the east slope of the Cascades.
Definitions
Checkerboard ownership: Managing lands in alternating sections with other landowners.
Block ownership: Contiguous sections of land in hands of one agency or owner.
Key players
Department of Natural Resources manages more than 5 million acres, ranging from tidal flats to farms and forests, to provide funding for public schools and universities. Product sales and leases from these lands brought in about $271 million last year.
Department of Fish and Wildlife manages wildlife throughout the state’s 45.6 million acres while having direct control of only 896,460 acres. The agency owns 532,146 acres while managing another 364,314 acres through leases or agreements with state and federal agencies such as the DNR, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Fish and Wildlife Service.
Western Pacific Timber, a Boise-based company owned by timberlands tycoon Tim Blixseth, 56, who debuted in the land-trade business in the 1990s in Montana after buying 164,000 acres of corporate timberlands that were checkerboarded throughout the Gallatin National Forest.
In a deal that required Congressional approval, he sold and traded 100,000 acres to the Forest Service while keeping 13,400 acres near Big Sky where he developed the Yellowstone Club, an exclusive ski and golf resort limited to members with a net worth of at least $3 million.
According to Blixseth, Western Pacific’s holdings now include:
“Idaho – about 217,000 acres after buying Boise Cascade and Plum Creek timberlands in 2005. Exchanges involving 107,000 acres are pending with state and federal agencies.
“Montana – about 400,000 acres.
“Washington – about 200,000 acres acquired in 2005, paying more than $100 million for land formerly owned by Boise-Cascade in Kittitas, Klickitat and Yakima counties. More than 80,000 acres are available for exchange with the DNR, plus the timber rights Boise-Cascade had on about 24,000 acres of WDFW land, Blixseth said.
The Nature Conservancy, an international land conservation group focused on preserving wildlife diversity. TNC took the lead on sealing the deals on 10,400 acres in the Tieton River drainage west of Yakima by purchasing land poised to be developed and holding it for acquisition by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an international wildlife conservation group that’s helping to fund appraisals, generate local support and pull land management groups together to facilitate the exchanges.
Key factors
DNR is obligated by law to manage its lands for “highest and best use” to fund Washington schools. Case in point: DNR land leased by the Fish and Wildlife Department for wildlife habitat near Quincy was converted into a golf course after the developer made a higher lease bid.
Washington Legislature cut off funding that allowed the Fish and Wildlife Department to lease land from the DNR for wildlife habitat, forcing the two state agencies to begin negotiating land exchanges.
Western Pacific Timber acquired 200,000 acres of former Boise-Cascade timberlands that could be sold for private development. Most of this land is in checkerboard ownership with state lands.
Checkerboard ownership hinders land management. Case in point: Because of liability, controlled burns to improve wildlife habitat are almost impossible when public land is mixed with private land.
Elk herds are already under pressure. Game managers in recent years liberalized the hunting seasons to cull the Yakima herd from nearly 12,000 animals to 9,500 to help reduce damage they cause on developed private lands.
Crux
“Almost without exception, the lands we need to exchange in order to block up our lands will include somebody’s special place where they hunt, fish, ride, farm or play,” said George Shelton, DNR’s assistant region manager in Ellensburg.
“Everybody recognizes how important this large exchange can be, but when it hits home that it might mean losing the section where you’ve shot your deer the last few years, that’s where we’ll have to really work with people to focus on the bigger picture.”