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Governor Otter wants to sell state land to create land trust program - 6/18/2007 BOISE (AP) Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter has announced that he will create a $50 million land trust to protect farms, ranches, timberlands and wildlife habitat, with the money for the program generated by selling state land. Money for the “Land Legacy Trust” would also come from a settlement with the Bonneville Power Administration for impacts to wildlife habitat from six federal dams in Idaho. The money from that settlement has not yet been negotiated. “While Idaho’s growth brings many benefits to our state, we need to balance growth with stewardship to ensure Idaho remains a place where farmers, ranchers and loggers can earn a living and where hunters, anglers and all Idahoans have access to our lands and our wildlife,” Otter said in a statement released on June 9. Officials say the land that would be sold is surplus land belonging to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG). Gregg Servheen, wildlife program coordinator for IDFG, said the agency has about 30 parcels that could be sold that wouldn’t harm wildlife habitat or reduce public access to hunting and fishing. “We have a broad list of properties we think are surplus to the agency and scattered across the state,” he told the Lewiston Tribune. Officials say the land trust idea is modeled after programs in other states and won’t cost Idaho hunters, anglers or taxpayers. The money brought in selling state land and from the settlement could be used to buy conservation easements, which typically limit development but allow the landowners to continue ranching, farming or logging. “Growth is the biggest threat we have to wildlife habitats, hunting, fishing and public access,” IDFG Director Cal Groen said in a statement. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming governor, Otter supported a bill that that would have sold off some of Idaho’s public lands to cover hurricane relief efforts in the Gulf Coast. But Otter withdrew his support after his Democratic challenger for the state’s top job, Jerry Brady, made it a campaign issue and criticized Otter for wanting to sell public land. Servheen said the land that could be sold is scattered around the state, and that some of it would bring the most money by auctioning it to the highest bidder. He said other parcels that contain wildlife habitat or that allow public access could be traded or sold to other public agencies with restrictions that would allow public access to continue. “(The land trust) would help us do things relative to wildlife habitat and public access,” Servheen told The Spokesman Review. “We have two potential sources to fund that, which we hope would get us there.” Servheen said the land trust could be up and running within four years. |
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