Plum Creek sale includes 13,000 acres in Yaak
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
July 17, 2008
Plum Creek Timber Co.’s recent agreement to sell 320,000 acres in western Montana to a pair of conservation groups includes 13,000 acres in Lincoln County.
During a meeting last week with the county commissioners, Plum Creek real estate manager Jerry Sorensen described the property as "some scattered pieces in the Purcell-Yaak that are wholly surrounded by national forest."
Plum Creek announced the $510 million sale to the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Lands on June 30. The agreement includes a condition that allows Plum Creek to harvest timber on the land for 10 years with an option for an additional five years.
The conservation groups have indicated that they do not plan to retain long-term ownership of the land. Once the timber agreement with Plum Creek expires, the land could be transferred to federal ownership, Sorensen said.
Plum Creek currently owns about 280,000 acres in Lincoln County, representing 12 percent of all land in the county and 55 percent of private land, Sorensen noted. In 2003, a conservation easement was completed in the Thompson and Fisher river drainages that included 58,000 acres in Lincoln County. The easement requires the land to be managed for timber production and bans residential or commercial development.
Over the past few years, Plum Creek has sold about 8,500 acres inside the county to 51 individual buyers along with another 28,000 acres south of Troy to Stimson Lumber. Another 32 tracts adding up to more than 5,000 acres are currently listed for sale.
Plum Creek’s focus is still on timber production, Sorensen said, but the land being sold has a much higher value for residential development.
"We’re not selling out of Lincoln County," he said.
The commissioners said they appreciated the visit by Sorensen and other company officials but would also like to have a chance to meet with representatives of the conservation groups to discuss their plans for the land.
"We get everything from news releases," Commissioner Rita Windom said. "It’s nice to have you folks here, but we should have those other folks here as well."
Commissioner John Konzen expressed concern about whether Plum Creek will still be in the timber business in Lincoln County after the 10-year agreement with the conservation groups expires.
"We saw the fiber agreement with Plum Creek and Stimson – 10 years and bang, they’re gone," he said.
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Editor’s Note: See the July 14, 2008 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Monday, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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