| 9,000 acres bought for
preservation in Cascades
(Note: This tangled web of using taxpayers' money to relieve us of living/working/visiting vast areas of our country is criminal -- and yet, just look at the way Congress FUNDS it! This IS The Wildlands Project!) May 22, 2003 A coalition of conservation groups has helped the U.S. Forest Service buy 9,000 acres to set aside for habitat and recreation near the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and along the Pacific Crest Trail. Lands bought along six miles of the trail are the largest acquisition since the trail was designated in 1968, said David Atcheson, campaign director for the Cascades Conservation Partnership, which set out three years ago to raise public and private money to buy 75,000 acres of privately owned land in the Cascades. The partnership has arranged the purchase of nearly 30,000 acres for $57 million, with $15 million coming from 16,000 donors and $42 million coming from Congress. It is well short of the partnership's goal but good in light of the current economic climate, Atcheson said. The 4,400 acres south of Alpine Lakes, in the Salmon la Sac region of the Cle Elum Valley, are original land-grant properties sold by Plum Creek Timber Co. for $4.1 million. The land, in seven different parcels, has 700 roadless acres and 800 acres of old-growth habitat. Plum Creek sold the 4,700 acres along the Pacific Crest Trail for $3.7 million. Money for the purchases was appropriated by Congress from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The partnership is working to get another half-million from Congress for another 5,300 acres. That land is available through the end of the year through options the Forest Service arranged with Plum Creek after land exchanges brokered in 1999. It also is working to get $1 million from Congress so the Forest Service can use options on another two parcels along the Pacific Crest Trail. Darrel Kenops, Acting Supervisor of the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forest, said "These forest lands offer an extraordinary mix of values for public ownership. They are especially important to wildlife species as a link between the North and South Cascades ecosystems." Kenops praised The Cascades Conservation Partnership for its successful campaign to raise private funds and increase citizen recognition of the value of central Cascades forest lands for public ownership. He said, “This whole lands acquisition process has been a wonderful example of cooperation by government, private industry, elected officials, conservation and recreation groups in the public interest." |