A conservation group has made the largest private land acquisition in Washington history, purchasing nearly 48,000 acres near the Cascade Mountains' Snoqualmie Pass east of Seattle.
The Nature Conservancy announced Monday it has bought the land from timber company . The land acquisition cost about $49 million.
The 47,921 acres acquired by the Nature Conservancy span both sides of Interstate-90, stretching from Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum. The land is home to spotted owls, elk, salmon, and ponderosa pine. It also encompasses the headwaters of the Yakima River.
Mike Stevens, the Washington state director for the Nature Conservancy, said the group wants to restore parts of the forest to its natural condition, reduce the risk wildfires, and sell timber in certain areas.
“We can manage the forests in a way that is supportive of conservation goals, supportive of the goal of delivering clean water to the Yakima Basin, and for providing public access,” Stevens said.
Historically congress gave every other square mile of land to railroads, which created a checkerboard of public and private landownership. Stevens said this fragmented ownership makes it difficult to manage lands, like the Cascades, where there are lots of migrating species.
“The principal risk, as we saw it, was that overtime these lands might be split up into smaller ownerships, which would make the issues that we see with the checkerboard pattern even more complicated,” Stevens said. “You can imagine that if you go from a single owner over 1,000 acres, and then you have five or six owners on the next 1,000 acres, you get more driveways. You get exurban development. You might get fences and restrictions to public access.”
Reese Lolley, the group's Eastern Washington forest program director, said the Nature Conservancy will next meet with people who live and recreate in the area.
"This is an opportunity to secure these lands and sustain recreational opportunities, conservation of wildlife habitat, and fresh water of the upper basin of the Yakima [River] for future generations," Lolley said.
This purchase nearly doubles the amount of land The Nature Conservancy owns in Washington state. The group's land deal with Plum Creek included 117,000 acres in Montana’s Blackfoot River Valley, where it already owned 48,000 acres.
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