Free: Contests & Raffles.
Perhaps they will stack up cougars like the Muckleshoot have on thier land. At least tribes can do predator management
Well they are not the only tribe that has bought up chunks of old Weyerhauser/ Campbell,/Skykomish resources property. The Tulips have purchased a couple big chunks had the USFS put up a gate to end drive in access. Sign of things to come I fear.
Quote from: Special T on October 04, 2024, 10:29:57 PMPerhaps they will stack up cougars like the Muckleshoot have on thier land. At least tribes can do predator managementSnoqualmie doesn't have treaty hunting rights, at least as of now.Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
Quote from: bigtex on October 05, 2024, 05:37:15 AMQuote from: Special T on October 04, 2024, 10:29:57 PMPerhaps they will stack up cougars like the Muckleshoot have on thier land. At least tribes can do predator managementSnoqualmie doesn't have treaty hunting rights, at least as of now.Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk.It's my understanding that tribes that own land that they extend reservation rights to don't need those treaty rights. The Kalispell tribe occasionally runs hounds on thier red and It's only 3k acres.
Quit going to the casinos, and other businesses and they won’t have the money to buy the land.
Quote from: Boss .300 winmag on October 04, 2024, 05:52:40 PMQuit going to the casinos, and other businesses and they won’t have the money to buy the land.Haven’t been to a casino in years and won’t anytime soon.
I was forwarded this email. It was sent out to elected officials in King County and statewide.All,For over a century the citizens of King County and elsewhere have had access to lands known as the Snoqualmie Tree Farm (also known as the Snoqualmie Forest.) Which was formerly a single large block of approximately 100,000 acres of timberland on the eastside of the Snoqualmie Valley stretching from just outside of North Bend all the way north into Snohomish County.For almost a century these lands were owned by Weyerhaeuser which essentially allowed unfettered public access into the property. In the 1990s due to a rise of crime and other issues on the property Weyerhaeuser closed the access gates and required an access permit/pass to enter the property. Many families who accessed the property for decades prior continued to purchase the permit so they could fish, hike, hunt, mountain bike, and just explore the amazing forest just outside civilization. In the early 2000s Weyerhaeuser sold the property to Hancock which again continued with it’s own access permit/pass. Through the years prices went up, but so did the quantity of permits sold as the property became more and more known for it’s mountain biking and fishing opportunities.Several years ago, Hancock sold the property to Campbell Global which now owns the property. Campbell Global instituted its own access permit/pass very similar to what previous owners utilized. In 2022 Campbell Global sold approximately 12,000 acres of the tree farm to the Snoqualmie Tribe signifying the largest land sale the Snoqualmie Tree Farm had seen in over 60 years. Now just this week I have been informed that Campbell Global has sold a similar sized parcel to another entity, essentially reducing the size of the Snoqualmie Tree Farm by 25% in just two years.Now you may be asking what’s the big deal. As I previously mentioned, the public has had access to the Snoqualmie Tree Farm for essentially a century. For decades the property was wide open to public use, and for the past 30 or so years the property has been accessible via a permit. The Snoqualmie Tribe has already informed the public they have no plans to let the public access the property they purchased, and it appears the purchaser of the recent acquisition has similar plans to not let the public access the property. While I certainly understand these properties are private property and the owners can permit whatever access they want, I wish Campbell Global and community leaders would realize that the breaking up of the Snoqualmie Tree Farm means the public has less access a large forest just outside their doorstep.When I informed my 85-year-old father of the recent land sale he began to cry, a scene I had only ever seen after the passing of his wife (my mother.) But when you understand what this property means to him, you’ll begin to understand why he got so emotional. He has memories as far back as the late 1940s fishing with his father and grandfather along the North Fork of the Tolt River in the tree farm, that area is now owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe. He has memories of hiking and hunting south of Bengston Lake, that area was just sold by Campbell Global. He has memories of hunting and spending summers bouncing around logging roads in the tree farm for every year he has been alive. Now that he knows he is near the end of his life he realizes going to the tree farm is like a walk down memory lane, except now many of those areas he is unable to access due to recent land sales. He can no longer go to the spot where he fished the NF of the Tolt River with his father and grandfather, he can no longer go see where he hiked and hunted near Bengston Lake. Now he’s limited to purchasing an access pass to the roughly 75% of the tree farm that is still owned by Campbell Global driving north, and stopping at a newly erected gate. Those areas are still there, he’s just not allowed to access it.So again, why am I writing this? The reason is simple, to hopefully get the community involved and realize we are just a few more land sales away from losing access to the Snoqualmie Tree Farm for potentially ever. If you think I am blowing this out of proportion, I simply want to inform you of what happened to the White River Tree Farm along the King-Pierce County line along Highway 410.For nearly 100 years the property was owned by Weyerhaeuser and sold to Hancock at nearly the same time the Snoqualmie Tree Farm was sold to Hancock. Much like the Snoqualmie Tree Farm, the White River Tree Farm had unfettered access for decades, until an access pass/permit system was instituted in the 1990s which Hancock continued.In 2013 the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe (MIT) purchased the entire 105,000 acres White River Tree Farm and continued to allow public access under a permit system ran by Hancock. However, over the past decade the MIT began to reduce areas within the tree farm which were open to the public via the applicable access pass. Finally, in 2024 the MIT ceased issuing access permits/passes to the White River Tree Farm, locking out the public from 105,000 acres of land in Southern King and Northern Pierce counties.Now some may say that they heard King County had purchased the Snoqualmie and/or White River Tree Farms, that’s partially correct. King County simply purchased the development rights for most of these properties, meaning these properties will essentially stay forest land forever, however they continued to be owned by other private/tribal entities. But what’s a forest if you can’t even step into it? Not even a National Park has that sort of protection! These areas will continue to be working timberlands, clearcut every few decades, just don’t think of stepping a onto foot onto the property!So what can we do? In a perfect world, the State of Washington (Department of Natural Resources) could purchase the land, but with such a large forest I know that is doubtful. I truly think the best option is just trying to maintain that timberland owners need to let the public access the lands in some way or form. These lands will undoubtedly change hands again, hopefully whoever Campbell Global sells it to will let the public continue to access the beauty of the Snoqualmie Tree Farm.