Why all this beautiful open land?
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Most valley communities are located miles apart, separated by stretches of beautiful open land, devoid of houses and development. Why is this?
The vast majority of the land base in the Upper Columbia is productive range, it is essential for wildlife, agriculture and forestry. Without this seemingly "empty" stretch of valley benchland, the wonderful environment many of us came here to enjoy would no longer exist.
Wildlife is dependent on a coherent ecosystem with space for grazing during the four seasons, shelter from the winter, to rear young, from predators. Herds should be of enough individuals to assure survival - a herd of 40 Elk could take a range of 2000 acres summer and winter, this takes space and an intact ecosystem
Agriculture is also dependent on lots of seemingly empty land. For every acre of watered land here, a rancher needs around 49 acres of dry range to support his stock during the hay-growing season. The irrigated land of the Edgewater District is around 550 acres.
This amount of watered land in full production would required 26,900 acres of dryland pasture, quite a bit of "empty space"! You can see that grazing is much in demand, but this pastureland is also shared with the wildlife, and tree-farming.
Most the benchland is not only in the ALR but also in the FLR, or Forest Land Reserve. There are special tax arrangements made for most of this land because the tree-crop is so slow-growing. Not only is a lot of seemingly-empty rangeland occupied by tree-farming but the state of productivity has to be maintained for a very long time, - it takes about 80 years to grow a decent marketable tree (for lumber) on the benchlands. Long-term, stable land-use is necessary, the open areas should be here to stay.
Conservation of the land base is often encouraged by tax concessions: a value of around $45/acre is assumed because the land is locked into a long term Managed Forest Plan that requires the landowner to keep the land in productive condition. In return for very low taxes, the landowner keeps the tree-farm intact and follows a registered plan. |
Without the "empty space" or open range needed for wildlife, agriculture, and forestry, this area could lose its attractiveness for recreation. In a way, tourism depends on the rangeland because it is always the foreground to the wonderful scenery people come here to enjoy.
Should an opportunity to acquire this property occur, Kirksland may be asking the public for pledges to be directed towards habitat acquisition. |
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