Landowners protest state’s park plan to commissioners

A 33-strong crowd of landowners from Rock Lake and Bonnie Lake filed into the Whitman County commissioners’ chambers Monday to protest a state proposal to turn their land into a public water corridor.

The land owners told county commissioners and Fish and Wildlife officials who were present under no condition would they sell land to the state for the park.

The United Bonnie Lake Landowners have spread the same message in the weeks since they first heard of the proposal.

Commissioners and state officials Monday gave the same response: if you don’t sell, the game department proposal just won’t go through.

“We oppose this. Most of us have owned land in this corridor for 100 years or more,” said Louise Belsby, long-time farmer of land along the corridor.

The regional officer of Fish and Wildlife in Spokane has proposed turning that corridor into a park to create more public access and to “protect the diverse range of species living there.”

The department plans to apply for a $3.6 million grant to the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office, or RCO, to purchase land for the corridor. Award of the grant will not be determined until September.

The land is defined as Chapman, Bonnie and Rock Lakes, water channels between them, and mile-wide strips of land on each side of the water.

Those strips of land include homes, barns, cattle, pasture, and timber.

Hole in the Ground bridge is a launch site for the water channel leading to Bonnie Lake.

Kevin Robinette, state game department regional wildlife program manager, answered a few questions at the meeting. Robinette has said in previous interviews with the Gazette if landowners do not sell their land, the proposal will not go through. He gave no indication Monday that the proposal had been dropped at this point.

Robinette said after the meeting Monday he would relay what he had heard to his superiors at the regional office. The Fish & Wildlife proposal is due to the RCO office in early May.

The proposal must meet a list of criteria to qualify for a grant from the RCO, said Jennifer Quan, an official with the F & W in Olympia. One of those criteria is community support and if support is low, the RCO office could turn down this proposal, she said.

Even if a grant proposal says community support is low, the RCO office could still decide to award the grant, Quan said. Fish & Wildlife could go ahead and then make offers to buy land with the grant money.

Quan said the RCO office would assign the funds to another proposal if the landowners reject purchase offers and the funding for the corridor remains unspent.

“If we can’t secure any sales with that money, we ask for an extension or the money goes to next project on the RCO list,” Quan told the Gazette in mid-March.

Tammy Bafus-Wiggins, whose family farms along the corridor, asked at Monday’s meeting why landowners along the corridor weren’t contacted ahead of time.

Robinette responded by saying the Fish & Wildlife plan was in its first stages at the moment.

“I know that’s not the best answer, ” he said.

“Why didn’t you ask us first before you went looking for money then?” a man in the back of the room asked.

Commissioners Greg Partch and Michael Largent made it clear Whitman County has little to no control over the state’s proposal. Largent said in an interview with the Gazette following Monday’s meeting that commissioners initially saw few problems with the department’s proposal because the plan was contingent on agreements from landowners. They told this to Robinette during his first presentation to commissioners.

Commissioner Pat O’Neill told the land owners no one had the right to take away their land, a statement which was met with applause in the crowded room.

Steve VanDyke, a volunteer for Fire District 7, spoke on the fire danger involved with the timber up and down that corridor.

“It’s a beautiful place. It’s an extremely dangerous place,” VanDyke said.

He reasoned that an increased number of people to the area would increase the risk of fire. The area is so remote, fire and rescue crews face a lengthy response time to access the area.

“If we have fire in these areas, it pretty much consumes almost all our budget,” VanDyke told audience members.

Land owners have listed other reasons why they don’t want to sell. More people in the area would increase the fire risk, and leave trash. With public access, more hunters and possibly poachers would be in the area.

Farmers were also alarmed that an entire proposal, including a map with their names and their land, had been drawn up by the game department without any locals being contacted.

Belsby held up photos for the audience of trash heaps and bullet-ridden public facilities at Fish Trap Lake.

“I will fight to the death before I see Hole in the Ground looking like this,” Belsby said.

At the end of the meeting, Robinette said he would take what he had heard back to his office and hoped he hadn’t damaged any relationships.

“You have,” said long-time farmer John Stelzer, drawing laughs.