More than 300,000 acres in the northern Rocky Mountains will be protected from development through a deal announced this week between Plum Creek Timber and The Nature Conservancy, which will raise $250 million to purchase the land.
The federal government is also committing $250 million, bringing the total price to $500 million for 500 square miles that are considered critical habitat for endangered animals, such as grizzly bears and lynx. The deal includes large tracts north of Missoula near teh Bob Marshall Wilderness Area.
The transaction will be completed in three phases over the next three years, as the land is transferred to public ownership, open for recreation. Plum Creek, which is the nation’s largest owner of private land, will continue to harvest timber from the land for the next 15 years.
Public Lands Bill
In related news, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) introduced a major lands bill (S. 3213) this week. The Chairman’s package contains more than 90 titles, including more than a half dozen wilderness measures to protect more than 900,000 acres of wild land in Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Virginia and West Virginia.
Measures in the lands package include:
–The Copper-Salmon Wilderness Act, to protect 13,700 acres of pristine old-growth forest in Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest
–The Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act, to permanently protect more than 128,000 acres of national forest on Mount Hood in Oregon
–The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Voluntary and Equitable Grazing Conflict Resolution Act, to protect 23,000 acres in southeastern Oregon’s Soda Mountain region
–The Owyhee Public Lands Management Act, which will protect as wilderness 517,000 acres in Idaho’s Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands
–The Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness and Indian Peaks Wilderness Expansion Act, to protect nearly 250,000 acres (94%) of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park;
–The Wild Monongahela Act, to protect 37,000 acres of wilderness in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia;
–The Virginia Ridge and Valley Wilderness and National Scenic Area Act, protecting 43,000 acres of the Jefferson National Forest as wilderness, and another 12,000 as a national scenic area
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