the montana legacy project
Baucus, Plum Creek, Conservation Groups Announce Massive Land Deal
By Dan Testa, Flathead Beacon, 6-30-08
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| Click the image for a larger map from the Montana Legacy Project | |
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Standing just below the summit of Kalispell’s Lone Pine State Park, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., today announced the purchase of 320,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Company-owned land by two conservation groups, calling the deal, “the largest land purchase, for conservation purposes, in American history.”
Dubbed, “The Montana Legacy Project,” The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land are buying the acreage for $510 million, and will finance payments on the land over the next three years through private and public sources, with the federal government paying for about half the cost through a forestry conservation bond mechanism Baucus inserted into the recently passed Farm Bill.
Plum Creek is selling 223,400 acres in Missoula County, and 35,500 acres in the Swan Valley, along with 13,800 acres in Lincoln County. No land close to Kalispell or Whitefish was on the selling block.
Spokesmen for the conservation groups said the deal will preserve the land for wildlife habitat, public recreation and sustainable forestry.
“It’s a place that so clearly defines our Montana way of life that it would be tragic to lose it as backcountry sprawl,” said Dana Christensen, chair of The Nature Conservancy in Montana. “The reality is that this land was going to be sold, at some point, to someone.”
Architects of the deal say they envision the land will eventually be a mix of state, federal and private ownership. A condition of the agreement allows Plum Creek to harvest timber on the land for up to 15 years. Eric Love, director of The Trust for Public Land’s Rocky Mountain Division, said the Legacy Project will involve the local communities that use the land currently to help work out the best mix of public and private ownership.
Baucus praised Plum Creek for “being such a good partner,” adding, “Clearly, Plum Creek wanted to do the right thing.”
The praise from the timber giant was mutual, with Hank Ricklefs, Plum Creek’s vice president of northern resources and manufacturing, thanking Baucus for making the deal possible.
Baucus helped lay the groundwork for the deal by creating a public financing mechanism known as Qualified Forest Conservation Bonds, and inserting the provision into the $307 billion federal Farm Bill, which passed in May. Baucus authorized the issuance of $500 million in the conservation bonds. In order to be eligible to receive the bonds: The land deal must be for more than 40,000 acres; adjacent to U.S. Forest Service land with the half the land to become U.S.F.S. property; and subject to a native fish conservation plan.
The Montana Legacy Project is eligible to receive up to $250 million in the conservation bonds, for the 90,000 acres that will be eventually transferred to U.S.F.S. ownership – much of which are the so-called “checker-boarded” lands inside existing Forest Service land.
As the Farm Bill worked its way through Congress, some Republican critics questioned whether the creation of the conservation bonds was specifically tailored to purchase Plum Creek’s land in Montana – since the criteria to get the bonds accurately describes the Plum Creek land in the current deal. A vote to remove Baucus’s provision from the Farm Bill failed in the House.
Baucus denied that he targeted the conservation bonds for Plum Creek’s Montana land, saying the Legacy Project will serve as a model for how similar conservation-purchase land agreements can be worked out elsewhere in the U.S.
“This is big here – I’m quite confident that various groups around the country are looking at this,” Baucus said. “It was written in a way that it can be used in other parts of the country.”
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Comments
Oink oink, this little piggy went to buy some more votes, and what is half a billion dollars squeezed out of the American Taxpayers when it comes to insuring reelection?
Maybe you'd like to get your local paid for politician to take money from school bonds for these purposes!!
Now we just have to ensure that this land remains open to multiple use. All these lands were at risk of becoming residential real estate, now they will remain wild. But it should be assured that the lands be kept open to access by all means, hiking, biking, Off-highway vehicles, snowmobiles, snowshoe and X-country skiing.
Too much of our land is being closed already. Let us work together and asure that all Americans will be allowed to access these lands in a multi-use fashion that is traditional in the West.
DJL
The land should be managed to the most effective aspects for as many as people as POSSIBLE - NOT just ALL Because!! Several of those uses/users are completely incompatible with each other and several damage the land more so - even TOO many hikers are bad for the trails/peaks!!
Remember, the Fed's HAD to send in the Army in 1903 to Yellowstone to save it from multi-use criminals - then they created the National Park Service, to manage the land/park.
Meanwhile back at the farm, Bacus just bought enough votes to keep him comfortable.
And Nature Conservancy can sell thier interest to we the tax payers at an exhorbitant profit, and only the elites will be able to use it.
I hope I'm wrong, but that is the way these things go and we wonder why our taxes are so high.
I don't think I quite understand exactly how this will all shake out either, but I'm glad someone took on the problem.
Might want to ask what the inventory is on these grounds. It ain't much, and certainly not 500 million worth. Never mind whether these are really "conservation" lands in the sense of being biologically important.
A gullible moron, elected by gullible morons. The scary part is that Montanans are supposed to be smarter than the average turnip because it's such a tough go to make it here. So what's the rest of the country like? Stupid enough to vote for the rest of the morons who went for this.
Humans, not trees, need investment. The alternatives for spending could be many more things than you name. Tester campaigned against all earmarks, he said so in Bozeman.
Suddenly, all his supporters are crowing over a whopper of an earmark that doesn't feed a person, cure a person, house a person, teach a person. And all you can come up with is, "well, it doesn't pay for oil exploration or the war".
But all the hypocrisy from the left aside, it does seem to be a very good thing for western Montana.
I remember well one night in Ketchikan, years ago. Saturday night. In from camp. Sitting in the Arctic Bar eating dinner with the camp boss where I was working and the Swede camp boss at Thorne Bay for KP. This big tall drink of water of a cutter, in rigging clothes with the pussy pad still on his suspenders, all drunked up, leans over on our table. And he looks right at the Thorne Bay supe and says "You must be the most queer s.o.b. in this joint, 'cause we seen you jump over fifteen naked wimmen just ta screw one logger. Har har har.." and off he stumbled.
Well, that is Senator Baucus. He jumped over any morals he ever had to screw the US taxpayers and give the Timber Barons a billion dollars. Be proud of that piss poor shadow of a man. He is yours, Montana. And I hope you tax yourselves to death to buy logged over land and let your schools continue to starve. Good choices. It's an election year. Shove it up the Farm Bill. Hide it in the Farm Bill and then brag about your misuse of the public trust. Pork for everybody except the poor, the unconnected, the unfortunate. Give the billionaires some more money and then go rake Bush over the coals, you hypocritical dipwads. How can you vote for someone who does stuff that stupid and then brags about it? There are any number of Western Senators now laying for him, of either party. He just hosed them. Spent the money to placate billion dollar companies and their preferred stock holders. All the geriatric trustees in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Chicago, the San Juan Islands are whole again. And then let the county timber in lieu payments program for local government, schools, and roads die a silent death. Screw them rednecks. Did Baucus owe Booth Gardner some money? Hadn't paid him for a past loan? Gardner was a good Democrat Governor of Washington, and is a Weyerhaeuser heir. Did 'ja do a favor for an old friend, Max?
how do you REALLY feel, Bear?
By the way, Weyco are the only "Timber" barons left. All the rest, every single one, has jumped down the TIMO-REIT hole and are now REAL ESTATE barons. The Weyco provision is just wasted money, a bribe I suppose to stop them from disintegrating until some more sweetheart deals can be stuffed in the NEXT farm bill. And the one after THAT. And NEXT.
You add all the money up and then have a windbag like Oregon Rep De Fazio stand in the House and berate Oregon's only R in the House because he didn't support De Fazio's "do you still beat you wife" bill for the counties, that broke a bad contract and put all the eggs in an empty basket, and you have to wonder if DeFazio is a water boy for the first string in the House. The Democrats spent the money!!! Baucus got the money!!! Oink! Oink!! Pork Que mada la bozos, the men with the golden gums.
And gave it to the Timber Barons, one and all!!! With the Big NGOs right in on the deal. Talk about talking both sides of your mouth!!! The Trust for Public Lands, The Nature Conservancy, are both Weyerhaeuser fops. They are selling a used car in this anti logging deal. They just rewarded ridge top to ridge top clear cutting...to the tune of close to a billion dollars....no money for county government, but lots for the Timber Barons...the little people are getting nothing. Oh, maybe if your pension owns Weyco stock, you institutional investors, you got a break. The deal was wrong morally, and it forever shoots down any credibility the NOGs might have had.
Yep, Dave, I probably feel even stronger but know that there is no way to get it put in a public bottle at full proof. I would like to be a lot more profane because this public rape, this flogging of rural economies, this insult to even modest intelligence, should be regarded with profanity, or why would it exist? Senator Baucus is the living symbol of his Party, the Jackass he has proven to be. The only mule I know, Murphy, has more sense and is more honest than Baucus. And Murphy can pack more elk than Baucus. Not as much pork, but more venison.
I hear the 4th of July parade in the distance. In my town, it more resembles a Mexican street fair than an American 4th of July, but who cares? The F-16 just flew by on the deck. That put the dogs under the table. I can hear the clip clop of horses carrying with Candidates bobbling along, and the '57 chevy convertible with another. And shouts and hollers. The Mexican jumping cars will be along soon. and the 4-H, now defunded by Baucus' largesse to Weyerhaeuser (our county is not able to fund the extension service this year, either. Or the county fair.) Weyerhaeuser is the owner of the most land in our county, and has all their gates locked to keep the unwashed out of their pristine, clear cut, herbicide drenched lands. We used to have log trucks with one log loads or great three log loads in the 4th parades. Neither the trucks nor the trees now participate, even though those kinds of trees fall over every year and are left to rot because that is gooooood. They call them thousand hour fuels this time of year.
I do have some very uplifted emotions today, regarding the en banc decision from the 9th Circuit. The worm turned. The pendulum reached the apex of its swing. The real question is if the USFS has anyone left who could do a job that entailed work in the field. No matter, it is a new day in the agency.
Back to the popcorn stand. my grandson is off watching the parade. I am the popcorn baron at the moment. Not selling any as the prospective buyers are off watching the parade.
There is NOT supposed to be an open, honest debate about the "legacy program" or the bribe to Weyco, or the rural share money collapse, and ESPECIALLY not about the failure of the esteemed, brilliant United States Congress to suss the implications of their cupidity. That's why the loot was stashed in the conference committee and rushed to the floor, that's why the press releases don't mention anything important except cheesy platitudes. Why, there are political LEGACIES at stake here.
So shut up and bend over.
Interestingly enough, farmers and ranchers are being dissed because of all the money in the farm bill. They will be the ones to take the heat for the half billion ear mark by Baucus that is going to end up going to TNC, who will probably end up selling the whole thing to the taxpayers who are paying to begin with. The politicians who work with them will get nice donations for reelection.
Fuel has almost doubled since the Dems got into congress, and still they want no more fuel produced.
Your master political strategy is precisely why nobody voted for you in YOUR Kelleheresque bids for glory.
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-ctmontana0706.artjul06,0,4358993.story
quote:
The deal was struck behind closed doors between Mark Rey, the former timber lobbyist who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, and Plum Creek Timber Co., a former logging company turned real estate investment trust that is building homes. Plum Creek owns more than 8 million acres nationwide, including 1.2 million acres in the mountains of western Montana, where local officials were stunned and outraged at the deal.
"We have 40 years of Forest Service history that has been reversed in the last three months," said Pat O'Herren, an official in Missoula County, which is threatening to sue the Forest Service for forgoing environmental assessments and other procedures that would have given the public a voice in the matter.
The deal, which Rey said he expects to formalize next month, threatens to dramatically accelerate trends already transforming the region. Plum Creek's shift from logging to real estate reflects a broader shift in the Western economy, from one long grounded in the industrial-scale extraction of natural resources to one based on accommodating the new residents who have made the region the fastest-growing in the nation.end quote.
But there is nothing in either chunk of enabling legislation in the Farm Bill that enforces either hope. Money for Nowhere in one case, Money for Nothing in the other.
Man, I LOOOOOOOOVE Congress.
Dave Skinner is correct, there's many more acres that Plum Creek is holding on to for real estate development. For instance, near Placid Lake, they have held on to 14,000 acres they hope to sell for real estate lots. And if the deal between Rey and Plum Creek goes through over road easements, they will have a lot more valuable real estate to sell as well.
I haven't seen the specific acres about the 320,000 we just bought, but I am willing to bet as Dave suggests that most of these acres are scalped of trees. Whether this is a good deal in the long view, I can't say, though I tend to think getting any of this land into public ownership is a positive step--but I don't like getting swindled to do it.
I recall reading Plum Creek's prospective to stockholders back in the 1990s. They lay this strategy out for all to read. Cut all the timber, sell the land. This is not a new plan--but one they have been putting into action for more than a decade.
Craven comes to mind. Dishonest comes to mind. Stupid comes to mind. Because the money is there to buy votes, to pay The Timber Barons off, to sent backdoor hundreds of millions to the NGOs which makes that oxymoron, "non Governmental organization", anything but money to those counties with timber waiting to burn before logging would ever be considered. NGOs get paid by government to sit on the National Wildlands Fire Committee, which means they are government, because no private companies or organizations sit on that committee. Money to pay the Senator's friends, but none for the poor who lost their economies in the those timber flush and jobless counties. The counties got hosed, and the the Baucus Timber Baron cronies got hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in a recession. Craven. Greedy. A Judas of the First Order.
This PCT deal is over 15 years, and the land becomes available after PCT logs it. Sure it is logged over. That is what this deal is all about. Log it and sell it. Craven. Sneaky, behind the back, in the dark of night, beyond the light of day, insertion in the Farm Bill, that Bush vetoed because of the Democrat pork, and the craven wing of the Republican party voted to over ride the Bush veto. So when you are being overtly dishonest with the public, of course you blame Bush for your own underhandedness. I don't think that Bush has been a bad guy in a vacuum. He has had lots of Congressional help from both parties. And still does. He has been enabled by Democrats and Republicans alike. You don't get Bush anymore, but the rest of the co-conspirators will still be there if we continue to pay for their re-elections with deals like this PCT-Weyerhaeuser NGO giveaway.
Also - WHY do YOU vote for whom you vote for? Is it because they do what YOU want?? Sounds like the pot/kettle syndrome of SELFISHNESS!!
YOU two have very little to no credibility - at least to Free/independent Thinkers!!
It is sort of like giving the Yankees the first ten draft choices every year because they are in the biggest market, and having Congress ordain that decision by mandating it in law. Or newspapers forgiven from anti-trust legislation because there is no longer enough interest for more than one newspaper in a market, and then if they do make money, lowering their taxes.
Well, Congress does that kind of stuff, and then can't find the money in the budget to fund USFS trails and campgrounds, even with volunteers doing the daily administrative work of collecting the money, and horse groups clearing trails of winter deadfalls and slides. They can't find the money because they spent it on other special interests. To spend a billion dollars on land purchases and tax relief when you can't maintain what you already have is the kind of dumb ass thing individuals do when they buy a subprime mortgage home and then can't make the payments because they spent the money on a newer, bigger SUV. Congress is doing just that, and someone needs to make that clear, to point that out, to pull the facts from under the rug they got swept in the dark by the Conference Committee majority party swindlers, even now with Democrats in control. And that was a majority party swindle, the tax breaks and sweetheart property sales, and there was complicity in the veto over ride by Republicans, because there is not a veto over ride number of votes in the Senate without Republican votes, and especially with two of the Democrats out campaigning for President when the votes were taken.
Democracies are run by the people who show up, who actively participate. The press showed up and reported on the Farm Bill pork swindles. Farm groups show up to complain that Weyerhaeuser, et al, getting a tax break is credited to them as a farm subsidy. What do you call this deal, Jay? A great day for America? You think there is a positive end to a deal inserted as a rider in the night to benefit special interests, namely the Timber Barons? Are you going to repeat the old saw about making law and sausages should not be a public viewing?
This could be called the Timber Barons Mining Act of 2008: the Timber Barons got the gold and the USFS recreation users, the timber counties, got the shaft.
The two facts are not in dispute are they, that Baucus helped broker the deal of "selling" some of PC assets, namely timber land to the nature conservancy and get that land off the tax bills. TNC by the way claims a rather vague plan to finance some of the cost of this half a billion dollars.
The other fact is that Plum Creek got permission to pave some forest roads at the same time from Mr. Rey.
Now Jay are you insisting that Baucus had no idea that any of that money could be used to pave roads???????????????
Now Obama has chimed in, shocked about the road paving, but evidently at peace with that company getting half a billion for selling some of the land.
Want to take bets on how long it will take TNC to sell the land to the US government?
Before you accuse anyone of anything - find and show the proof!
Otherwise - your statements are libel and slander; NOT free speech!
Collective ownership is no ownership at all. Because some guy in Washington DC does NOT care about the property, because it isn't his. But he still gets to make all the decisions about it. It's completely stupid, and the sheeple accept it because it's "always been that way".