President gives the salmon a sanctuary

Eric Barker

President Clinton signed a bill Tuesday that could create the nation’s first wild salmon sanctuary.

The Northeast Oregon Assembled Land Trade Act, facilitated by the Orofino-based Clearwater Land Trade, will protect some 51 miles of the North Fork of the John Day River by transferring about 50,000 acres of private land to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Environmentalists are hailing the act as an example of a good land trade.

“We are not always in favor of land exchanges but this particular one is a good one,” said Tom Wolf, spokesman for the Oregon Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Wolf says the trade will put critical habitat for threatened wild spring chinook salmon, steelhead and bull trout in the public’s hands.

In exchange, a rancher and a timber company will receive scattered parcels of federal land that are surrounded by private property. The private landowners will receive about the same amount of land, but by law the land had to be of equal value rather than equal size.

“It’s one of those win-win things where you have almost everybody in favor of it,” said Wolf.

The exception is Janine Blaeloch, executive director of the Seattle-based Western Land Exchange Project.

She claimed the public is being cut out of the process because the land exchange is being accomplished through legislative action instead of through normal federal regulations that call for extensive public input.

“We don’t like legislative land exchanges,” she said. “I think it’s getting to the point now that the tradeoffs are too dangerous and the agencies are too imprudent and the public, including the environmentalists, are too willing to accept the consequences.”

Blaeloch also said even though the land the government is giving up is scattered, it contains old growth ponderosa pine stands. She charged the partners of Clearwater Land Exchange pursued a legislative trade because they feared the public would file lawsuits to stop the deal.

Keith Stonebraker, a partner in Clearwater Land Exchange, said Blaeloch is partially correct. The company has been working on the exchange for six years and did fear a protracted lawsuit. Legal action that could have drawn the proceedings out another two years would have been a deal killer, he said.

‘The only thing the legislation does is eliminate a protracted and expensive lawsuit holding up the project.”

Stonebraker said the plan to trade the land has gone through several layers of public review, including eight public hearings and two environmental impact statements. Several reviews to check for things like cultural resources, the presence of fossils and rare and endangered plants were conducted on the lands before they were traded. Those reviews were done in a public manner.

To accomplish the deal, some 4,000 acres of land that may have contained old growth ponderosa pine were pulled from the table at the last minute.

“We just wanted to make sure,” said Stonebraker. “We had endorsements from all the major environmental groups and we did not want any of them to feel we had slighted them.

Wolf of Trout Unlimited and Jim Myron of Oregon Trout both hope the area will be declared a wild fish sanctuary.

“The whole idea behind at least our concept of a sanctuary is that you protect the best remaining habitat that you have,” said Myron.

They said the John Day River is appealing because there has never been an introduction of hatchery fish there and it is one of a few completely free-flowing rivers left in the West.

The new federal land will be managed by the Bureau of Land Management with an emphasis on protection of fish habitat. The land will now be open to the public for fishing and other uses. according to Dan Tippy of the BLM.

“This is a good exchange. There are a lot of benefits to the public and to the resources.

Stonebraker said after expenses and before taxes the partners of Clearwater Land Exchange expect to make about $25 an hour for the time they’ve spent on the deal.

“This isn’t the most lucrative profession in the world but it’s fun to do because you are really accomplishing a lot for wildlife.”