SCABLAND OASIS
BLM PURCHASES 12,800-ACRE ESCURE PROPERTY
TO PRESERVE CLASSIC COMBINATION OF COULEES AND STREAMS

Copyright 1999, The Spokesman-Review 
Date: Sunday, July 25, 1999 
Section: OUTDOORS & TRAVEL 
Byline: By Rich Landers 
Outdoors editor Edition: SPOKANE Page: H1 SCABLAND OASIS BLM PURCHASES 12,800-ACRE ESCURE PROPERTY TO PRESERVE CLASSIC COMBINATION OF COULEES AND STREAMS

Calf-high boots are essential gear for touring a newly acquired block of public land south of Lamont, Wash.

Without them, visitors are doomed to uncomfortable walking followed by a long, tedious session of plucking cheatgrass spears from socks and shoes.

Vast expanses of weeds are a lingering legacy from a century of sheep and cattle grazing on the 12,800-acre Escure Ranch that straddles the border of Adams and Whitman counties.

But scabrock coulees, streams, and wetlands provide a natural foundation that bodes good things for wildlife.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials closed a $2.6 million deal last week to acquire the ranch.

Eventually, public access will be allowed to this sprawling, mostly unroaded parcel of classic scablands that includes Wall Lake and eight miles of Rock Creek.

"This property is a prize we're looking forward to managing," said Clifford Ligons, BLM area manager in Spokane.

"Our goal is restoring natural vegetation to the land, but that's a very long-term project," said Kevin Devitt, the BLM lands agent who has managed the mountains of paperwork required for this and other agency land acquisitions.

The Escure Ranch is the seventh major block of land BLM has acquired in the 1990s. Before that, the agency hardly had a chunk of land big enough to manage.

Going into the new millennium, BLM has become a major player in Eastern Washington wildlands management.

The agency makes money for the deals by selling relatively small parcels of land that are scattered through northern Washington timberlands.

For the most part, BLM has been trading timber for sagebrush.

The Kettle Range Conservation Group filed suit against BLM to block further land trades, arguing that small but important stands of old-growth forests were being sold to logging companies for the sake of buying scablands.

``After requiring us to rework portions or our environmental assessment, the judge essentially said we're serving the public interest and that shrub-steppe land is as important to some wildlife communities as timberland is to others,'' said Gary Yeager, BLM resource specialist.

An abundance of water distinguishes the Escure Ranch from other properties in this parched portion of the Palouse.

The ranch includes more than 100 acres of permanent surface water plus many more acres of temporary potholes and wetlands used by migrating birds.

With Rock Creek flowing through the heart of the ranch, the area is a magnet for wildlife ranging from mule deer to waterfowl. The coulees provide cover deer desperately need in this region during winter, said BLM biologist Todd Thompson.

``Surprisingly, we've been seeing very few pheasants or quail, but quite a few Hungarian partridge,'' he said.

``This area is a natural funnel for migrating waterfowl heading to Turnbull (National Wildlife Refuge). Shorebirds like greater yellowlegs, spotted sandpipers, black-necked stilts stop here on their spring and fall migrations.''

All the amphibian species in Washington have been found on the ranch as well as all the Columbia Basin raptor species with the exception of the peregrine falcon, Thompson said.

Rock Creek holds rainbow and brown trout as well as other fish species, such as carp and suckers. ``Ranch hands used to keep fishing rods in their pickups,'' Thompson said. ``That's a pretty good sign the property has fish. A lot of them wash down from Rock Lake.''

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Department has stocked trout into Wall Lake in the past.

BLM officials said they probably will ask the state Fish and Wildlife Commission to consider special fishing regulations for the ranch waters.

``You need two long days on horseback to really see this ranch,'' said Devitt as he bounced his vehicle over one of the few rough ranch roads that lead from the deserted farm buildings.

``That's the way most of the work has been done here, and you can see why,'' he added as his vehicle crawled over the rocks and ruts.

The property was developed by sheep ranchers John and Marcos Escure from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Rock fences, walls and trails are evidence of the effort put into the ranch for sheep production.

``People who live out here say the homestead area was always beautifully kept and organized,'' Ligons said. Since the 1980s, however, few of the galvanized steel structures have been used.

The ranch became available after Marcus Escure died in January, Devitt said.

``Word has gotten out that BLM is willing to consider buying good blocks of shrub-steppe habitat,'' he said. ``The bank that held half of the land in trust gave us a call.''

The heirs, who range from the United States to Spain, ``went out of their way to work with us because they really wanted to keep the ranch intact,'' he said.

The ranch currently is earning $33,000 a year from grazing rights leased primarily to former state Sen. Scott Barr of Edwall.

As the land restoration plan is developed, the amount of grazing is likely to be reduced to about 25 percent of current levels, Devitt said. Particular emphasis will be given to keeping cattle off the banks of Rock Creek during spring.

BLM will make payments in lieu of taxes to the two counties, Ligons said.

Adams County will receive nearly $6,000 a year for the 7,659 open space acres within the county. That's an increase of about $4,000 from the taxes that have been paid under private ownership, he said.

Whitman County will receive a little more than $4,000 for the 5,144 acres on its side of the county line, he said. Because of the change in use of the buildings on the Whitman County side, the payments will be about $400 less that past tax payments, he said.

``I'm excited about all the interest we've already received for working with the property,'' Ligons said. ``Washington State University is interested in using the land for environmental education classes and we've already heard from groups, interested in helping with restoration.

``There's a big attraction to this ranch because there's very little wide-open public land in Whitman and Adams counties.''

The ranch eventually will be open to hunting, fishing, hiking, horse-riding, wildlife watching and other low-impact recreation.

Roads into the property will be gated and locked and access restricted for at least 90 days until BLM can work out an access management plan, Ligons said.

Motorized vehicles are likely to be prohibited on virtually all of the property.

The ranch is a few miles south of the 2,300-acre Revere property managed by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department. Nearby are another 1,630 acres BLM acquired in 1997.

The ranch includes portions of historic trails, including the Mullan Road, an important military wagon road constructed in the late 1850s linking Walla Walla to Fort Benton.

The John Wayne Trail, an abandoned railroad right of way, managed as a trail by the Washington State Parks Department, borders the property on the west.

Rock Creek floods much of the bottom land in the heart of the ranch each spring, creating a stretch of five waterfalls at Towell Falls.

Evidence of Native American use also remains intact on the ranch.

Ligons said he relishes being in the position to acquire public lands that can be devoted to nature and recreation.

Ligons became the area manager last year for BLM's 400,000 acres in Washington. He transferred from from a similar position in Nevada, where he oversaw a BLM district totaling 5.5 million acres.

``This is quite a change,'' he said, noting that BLM controls only 1 percent of the land in Washington compared with 97 percent of the land in Nevada.

BLM's top Washington counties are Okanogan with 50,000 acres, Lincoln with 48,000 acres, Grant with 35,000 acres and Franklin with 20,000 acres.

``It's actually harder to manage 400,000 acres of widely scattered lands than it is to manage millions of acres that are pretty much in a solid block,'' he said.

``We still have some small parcels in the mountains we virtually can't even reach because they're surrounded by private land. Our goal is to continue trading out of those unmanageable properties so we can do something good in the drier parts of the state.''

Memo: This sidebar appeared with the story: Major BLM land acquisitions

In the 1990s, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management made land swaps and deals to secure seven major landholdings in Eastern Washington.

Working through the Idaho-based Clearwater Land Exchange, which brokered the deals, the agency has sold 132 scattered parcels totaling about 10,560 acres. Most of the disposed parcels were timberland in Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties.

Sale of these lands has primarily been to timber companies or, in some cases, to other adjacent landowners. From the transactions, the agency secured more than $13 million, which has been used to purchase six major blocks of land.

The Miller Ranch at Fishtrap Lake was purchased in 1992 with money from BLM secured in a grant from the federal Land and Conservation Fund.

Following is a summary of the major land acquisitions, using round numbers supplied by BLM land agent Kevin Devitt in Spokane:

1991- Lakeview Ranch on Pacific Lake plus property on Crab Creek, both in Lincoln County, 9,600 acres. Cost: $1 million.

1992-Miller Ranch at Fishtrap Lake in Lincoln County, 8,000 acres. Cost: $2.5 million.

1993-More lands on Crab Creek, Fishtrap Lake and small areas near Twin Lakes, all in Lincoln County, 12,000 acres. Cost: $2 million.

1995-Twin Lakes Ranch in Lincoln County, 12,000 acres. Cost: $3 million.

1997-Coffee Pot Lake area in Lincoln County, 5,000 acres. Cost: $2 million.

1998-Huckleberry Mountains in southern Stevens County, 5,000 acres. Cost: $2.5 million.

1999-Escure Ranch in Adams and Whitman counties, 12,300 acres. Cost: $2.6 million.

Rich Landers