Just a little background. The US Bureau of Reclamation is a significant landowner in Grant County and some other eastern WA counties. In fact most of the WDFW "Wildlife Areas" in Grant County are comprised of lands owned by BOR but managed by WDFW. BOR per federal law is not a recreation agency like the other federal land management agencies are. Very similar to how DNR leases land for agricultural reasons, BOR does the same.
Interesting issue coming from WDFW:
Dedicated Hunting Rights: Biologist Dougherty finalized all the approximate location properties that had hunting and fishing rights that were retained by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) for WDFW. The present status of the property rights were verified by WDFW real estate services and totals about 8,700 acres. All relative information has been entered into an ArcGIS database for distribution to any interested parties. Biologist Cotton presented the information at the quarterly meeting with BOR staff. The information will be presented at the District Team Meeting next week. Biologist Cotton is coordinating a meeting with Region 3 to discuss the next steps. It appears that many of these sites will have low or no potential for hunting; some are highly developed orchards, others have homes, others have access or management issues. It is highly likely that the current owners are unaware that the public has access to their property. We will have to proceed cautiously.
