Under fire, state drops Bonnie Lake corridor plans

Amid a landslide of heated protest letters and phonecalls, the state fish and wildlife department announced April 21 they are canceling their Bonnie Lake water corridor proposal.

Regional game department director Kevin Robinette called the Gazette April 21 to say the department had canceled.

The department now cannot apply for the $3.6 million grant until 2012, he said.

The corridor proposal had called for 3,000 acres along Bonnie, Chapman and Rock lakes to be turned into a state-owned natural wildlife area open to the public. Most of that land belongs to private property owners who are members of the United Landowners of Bonnie Lake. Those landowners are opposed to selling their parcels for the proposed corridor.

In the past two months, more than 75 concerned landowners along the corridor have written letters, attended a Whitman County commissioner meeting, and made phone calls protesting the plan.

Many landowners are from families who have farmed that land for more than 100 years.

Robinette has told landowners the department would only buy land on a willing seller basis.

Robinette, along with a handful of other fish and wildlife officials, still plan on attending a private meeting hosted by landowners April 27 to explain the department’s proposal.

As the April 27 meeting stands today, Spokane County commissioner Bonnie Mager, Robinette and up to 40 local landowners are expected to gather at 7 p.m. at District 3 Fire Station 39 on Cheney-Plaza Road.

Mager asked to be on the guest list for the meeting after speaking with landowners.

An intial misunderstanding between Robinette and landowners had this meeting slated as being called by fish and wildlife. Landowners told the Gazette they were actually responsible for putting the meeting together.

The department would have turned in an application for a $3.6 million grant by May 3 to the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office, or RCO.

The area proposal was defined as Chapman, Bonnie and Rock Lakes, the water channels between them, and mile-wide strips of land flanking each side along the waterway.

Those strips of land in question hold homes, barns, cattle, wheat and lentil fields and untouched forest throughout.