Washington state approves landmark land swap with timber company
Huge blocks of prime hunting and wildlife habitat land in Yakima and Kittitas counties went from checkerboard ownership to state control with the approval of a land swap between an Idaho-based timber company and the state Department of Natural Resources.
The land exchange, believed to be the biggest trade of private land for state-managed land in state history, will put into government ownership 82,548 acres previously owned by Western Pacific Timber.
The timber company will receive 20,970 acres -- appraised at just over $56 million, virtually the same amount as the larger land mass going to the state -- in smaller parcels spaced throughout 15 counties.
The exchange, approved Tuesday by the state Board of Natural Resources, helps clear the path for another much-anticipated land swap between the DNR and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife that would involve large chunks of the L.T. Murray and Wenas wildlife areas.
"Those two exchanges are stand-alones, but this certainly provides a keystone for our continued efforts to swap with Fish and Wildlife," said DNR assistant regional manager George Shelton.
The swap with Western Pacific, he added, helps "fill in a lot of the holes" of previously private ownership between the DNR and state wildlife lands being considered for the next exchange.
The land swap ensures that the public, particularly hunters and outdoors enthusiasts, won't have to fear encountering "no-trespassing" signs in areas where checkerboard ownership -- blocks of public land interspersed with private ownership -- offered no such guarantee. And some popular fishing spots in the Wenatchee area were removed from consideration for private sale.
Areas that were placed into state ownership with Tuesday's approval include two very popular hunting areas -- the southern slopes of Manastash Ridge, east of Cliffdell, and the Naneum, northeast of Ellensburg.
"It's a very important area for hunting," said wildlife department habitat biologist Perry Harvester. "That whole slope of Manastash Ridge, all of those little drainages and continuing on down to Umtanum Ridge, is very popular for both deer and elk hunting. So access is very important in those areas."
No less important to hunters and wildlife is roughly a 10-by-15-mile span of the Naneum that once was under private ownership and will now be almost entirely managed by the DNR. The swap moves nearly 43,000 acres in the Naneum into state management.
"That whole thing is extremely important," Harvester said, "not only for elk, but bighorn sheep are in that area and it's also important for chukar hunters. And for wildflowers -- it's a very popular area in the early spring, because those areas tend to bloom early because of the southern exposure."
Continue reading this article from the Yakima Herald-Republic:
State approves landmark land swap with timber company
