FWP Board of Commissioners approves revised proposal to acquire acquisition in Fish Creek

by Summer Crosby
| March 18, 2010 1:31 PM

On March 10th, Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) officials delivered a revised proposal to purchase lands in the Fish Creek Drainage area south of Alberton to their board of commissioners.

"They heard the proposal to adopt the Fish Creek acquisition and voted unanimously," said Chas VanGenderen, administrator of parks division or FWP.

A revised decision for the proposal was released by FWP for plans to acquire land in the Fish Creek drainage on March 9.

The revised decision now proposes to purchase the Fish Creek Property for $17,350,000, approximately 40,945 acres. The price is still $4.5 million less than the appraised market value of $21,864, 673. Beforehand, the purchase price was $7.5 million less the market value, but after the decision completion notice dated back on February 26, FWP agreed to renegotiate the purchase price at the request of The Nature Conservancy. The $7.5 million dollar donation that would have resulted to the State of Montana would have been difficult for the TNC to make "given the current economic environment," Dave Risley, administrator of the Fish and Wildlife Division wrote in the revision statement.

The $3 million dollar increase in purchase price according to the newly released decision notice will be covered by an increase in federal Pittman-Robertson grants with funding matched by state Habitat Montana funding and donated value from TNC, who is now making a $4.5 million dollar donation to the state.

Also changing is the arrangement of acres for the Wildlife Management Area and State Park. Now that funding for the $3 million dollar increase in purchase price will come from sources earmarked for wildlife habitat, the acreages have been adjusted to reflect percentage of funding contributed to the acquisition as a whole. In doing so, the acreage of the State Park will be reduced by 1,462 acres. Originally, the State Park would have encompassed 7,650 acres, but will now be dropped to 6,188 acres. As for the Wildlife Management Area, the acreage of the area will be increased from 33,295 acres to 34, 757 acres, a 1,462 acres increase.

Reducing the acres, according to the written revision, also responds to a number of public comments that were made that residents would like to have seen a smaller park area according to VanGenderen.

"We're excited to have this opportunity to work with the residents of Mineral County," he said.

A second opportunity for public comment will be March 18 at 9 a.m. in Room 137 of the State Capitol Building where the Board of Land Commissioners will have the final say on the proposal.