At this weekend's Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting the commission will approve the first phase purchase of the Grand Coulee Ranch. The first phase includes purchasing 4,198.45 acres for $1.8M. If WDFW acquires the whole ranch as planned, they will acquire the entire 20,571 acre ranch. The acquisition is being funded by a grant from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program. The ranch is about 5 miles NW of Grand Coulee and includes 14 miles of Columbia River waterfront property.
WDFW will be sending $4,200 in Payment's In-Lieu of Taxes (PILT) to Douglas County for the property.
As seen in the below newspaper article, the Douglas County Commissioners support the purchase
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EAST WENATCHEE — Douglas County commissioners are defending their support of a state land buy near Grand Coulee, saying they expect the public benefit from new fishing and hunting opportunities to far outweigh lost tax revenue.
Their defense comes in the wake of an April 3 presentation by the Okanogan County Farm Bureau in Winthrop about the importance of private property ownership, and how state land purchases have changed Okanogan County. Another presentation is planned in East Wenatchee on May 5.
Douglas County commissioners say they support the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s plan to buy the 20,500-acre Grand Coulee Ranch, including a 4,100-acre piece already approved by the state and scheduled for purchase this year. Before supporting it, they ensured that the property would remain open to grazing.
Regional Wildlife director Jim Brown said the land is being acquired to protect sharp-tail grouse and to provide public access for recreation, particularly to the Columbia River and Rufus Woods Lake.
Commissioners Steve Jenkins and Dale Snyder say they understand why land acquisition is an issue in Okanogan County. “But we’re totally different than Okanogan County — just the opposite,” said Jenkins. “We’re losing all our land to people who are buying it privately and locking it off to the public. We need some areas in Douglas County that are open to the public,” he said.
Snyder said the 20,500-acre parcel — if the entire piece is eventually purchased — brings in just over $3,000 a year in taxes to the county, and a little over $4,100 in taxes to other taxing districts, like schools. Those taxes would just be shifted to other property owners. “It’s disingenuous to say the county and schools will lose tax revenue, because they won’t,” he said.
And, both commissioners said, the added bird and deer hunting and fishing opportunities has the potential for bringing recreation to a largely unvisited part of the county.
Jenkins said full purchase would open access to a 15-mile stretch of the Columbia River. “We’re not going to lose any money,” he said.
Frances Dinger, a spokeswoman for the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition which supports the acquisition, said several studies have shown the economic benefits that outdoor recreation brings. Statewide, she said, it generates some $22.5 billion in retail revenue, 227,000 jobs and $1.6 billion in state and local tax revenue. Hunting adds another $1.6 billion in retail sales, and $159 million in taxes, she said.
Jenkins added that as a private property rights advocate, he would not stand in the way of a landowner who wants to sell to a government agency, unless the planned use for that property was clearly a detriment to the public.
Fish and Wildlife officials say the agency only buys property from willing sellers.
Jon Wyss, president of the Okanogan County Farm Bureau, said his presentation was never intended to be critical of the Grand Coulee Ranch purchase.
Developed from a report the Farm Bureau did in 2009, the presentation’s main message is that the economic impact of land acquisitions should be fully evaluated before they’re approved, he said. “The one thing about the presentation that gets misconstrued is that we outright oppose every government land acquisition or every conservation easement. That’s not the case,” he said. He said he doesn’t know whether the Grand Coulee Ranch land purchase is economically beneficial. “I haven’t done that work, and the commissioners could be right. I just don’t know,” he said. Wyss said the presentation is centered on how land acquisition has impacted Okanogan County, showing a 50-year history of land buys. “There are two slides that deal with national acquisitions, one that deals with the city of Wenatchee, one that deals with Grand Coulee Ranch, and 40 that deal with Okanogan County,” he said, adding, “All we’re doing is providing information.”
