April 14, 2000
COLVILLE, Wash. (AP) -- The final part of a land deal intended to protect trout habitat and the city of Seattle's watershed in northeastern Washington has been completed.
The last transaction was Wednesday's transfer of 789 acres on the Bowe Ranch property from the city to the Colville National Forest for $2.3 million.
The city sold the national forest another 880 acres on the same property for $2.1 million last spring.
The deal was completed in phases because the national forest needed congressional appropriations spread over two years to come up with the total, said Kent Whitehead, Seattle-based project manager for the Trust for Public Land.
The national nonprofit land-conservation group helped put together the deal.
The city of Seattle will use money from the sale to support protection of its water supply and aid salmon recovery.
The city offered the land northwest of Republic to the Forest Service in hopes the move would protect three miles of stream used by the native strain of redband trout.
"This acquisition provides a very high conservation return for Washington by protecting streams on both sides of the Cascades for the benefit of threatened species and the public," Whitehead said.
Seattle bought the Bowe Ranch land in 1976 under a long-term program to obtain properties that could be swapped or sold to gain possession of land along the Cedar River. That watershed on the Cascades' western slopes supplies more than 70 percent of the water used by about 1.3 million Seattle-area homes and businesses.
The Forest Service paid for the Bowe Ranch property with funds from an account created to protect Pacific Northwest streams. Members of Washington's congressional delegation helped secure funding.
The property adjoins Colville National Forest lands and has been sporadically used for cattle grazing in recent decades.
Forest Service officials have said any future logging on the property likely would be restricted to protect redband trout in the Trout Creek drainage.
Seattle also expects to close another Forest Service deal next spring, this one involving sale of its 550-acre Eagle Creek Ranch northeast of Leavenworth, Whitehead said. That land, which would become part of the Wenatchee National Forest, supports chinook salmon and steelhead fisheries.
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