[Vision2020] The Cedars

[Chris Storhok]

Mark,
I imagine the county owns property that can be traded to the school land
trust for the parcel.  I have a hunch if you could show the legislature that
by keeping the cedars in the school land trust the state will lose money on
that site.  Perhaps one of the V2020 participants who has access to school
land trust property values, timber sales data, and the cost of site
management can put together a study that could demonstrate that the state
would be better off to sell (or exchange) the land with the county.  

Another thought, are there any other large land swaps in the works similar
to what the state put together with the USFS and BLM to preserve the Boise
foothills?

Phil, do you know of any mining companies who may need to make a land trade
with the state that can take advantage of this parcel? 

There must be a solution, the "cedars" is just to valuable as a natural
area.

Chris  
   

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Mark Solomon
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:20 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] The Cedars

Chris,

Thanks for the support. Turning it into a county park could be the 
second step. The first big hurdle is getting it out of the school 
lands trust and I somewhat doubt that the legislature would fund 
creation of a county park outright.

m.

>Mark,
>I am glad to see that the cedar grove is back in the news, I hope this time
>you will be able to lock that site up for good.  Is it possible that the
>site can become a county park?  Latah County has such a wonderful park
>system and I am sure Andy Grant, the park staff, and local volunteers would
>be able to manage and tend the area better than State Parks could. T
>	The county can apply for a LWCF grant to fund acquisition and
>upgrades to the site.  Use of LWCF funds also means that the county must
>preserve the site in perpetuity as a park. I also believe that adjacent
>landowners may be more willing to grant easements or also outright sell or
>donate neighboring parcels to help with formation of a locally owned park.
>
>	I wish you the best of luck in preserving the cedars.  I sure loved
>hiking and skiing through there when I lived in the county and I hope that
>future generations can enjoy the grove as well.
>
>Chris Storhok

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