Trust lands Wal-Mart grant for Squaw Creek plan

The Deschutes Basin Land Trust will receive $400,000 to allow their acquisition of a conservation easement on an 1,100-acre private ranch near Sisters, according to Brad Nye, conservation project manager for the Land Trust.

The grant comes from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and is funded by Wal-Mart. The retail giant is pledging this week to conserve at least one acre of wildlife habitat for each acre it develops — or will develop in the next 10 years.

Nye said Wal-Mart will fund five or six projects per year as part of ths initiative.

The property where the conservation easement has been proposed is the Rimrock Ranch located a dozen miles northeast of Sisters.

The property includes about two miles of Squaw Creek. Owners of the ranch, Bob and Gayle Baker proposed the easement after seeing a similar agreement work successfully in Washington State.

If approved, the easement would help protect Squaw Creek habitat for Chinook salmon, bull trout, and steelhead as well as deer and elk range, Nye said.

An agreement would keep the ranch in one ownership and prevent it from being divided into a future high-density development. There are more than a dozen individual tax lots on the ranch, making it attractive for future development.

“Because the project is still in the early stages, details on the amount of the grant and the specifics on terms of the easement agreement are still under discussion,” Nye explained.

Financial arrangements for acquiring the easement will establish a balance between what the Bakers will be paid for the easement and what they might donate as a tax write-off, Nye said. Terms of the agreement also likely will allow the Bakers to build a new home on the property.

Future owners of the ranch would be required to accept the terms of the agreement and not develop it. The Bakers have declined to comment on the proposal at this time.

Last week, the Deschutes County commissioners voted 2 – 1 to endorse the proposal. Commissioners Tom DeWolf and Dennis Luke endorsed the plan while Commissioner Mike Daly opposed it.

“I think it’s a great project,” DeWolf said. “Here we have a property owner who wants to preserve the creek and the winter deer range that dominates his property. The Land Trust wants to buy it and offer their services in protecting it. I enthusiastically supported their request for a letter of endorsement at our meeting. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

The Land Trust has found that most major foundations making grants do request that local government and the congressional delegation endorse proposed projects.

“That is why we reviewed the project with the Deschutes County commissioners,” Nye said.

Jefferson County and Oregon’s congressional delegation will be contacted. he added. Since 1995, the Deschutes Basin Land Trust has acquired about 5,500 acres in Central Oregon to protect fish, water, and wildlife resources. Last summer, they purchased a 1,240-acre piece of forest property from Weyerhaeuser Company in the Metolius Basin. The land trust is already conducting interpretive outdoor programs on the Metolius property.