The proper use for land

MEDIMONT — In his lifetime, Larry Donohoe has watched a spate of land deals come to pass near his home at Medimont.

Many of them were handshake deals that had little effect on neighbors or the rural neighborhood.

The latest one however, a deal by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to make public an 1,100-acre riverfront parcel, is part of a trend.

The land along the river between Cave Lake and Black Lake — once called the Pring Ranch, but better known lately as the Black Lake Ranch after one-time North Idaho business magnate Marshall Chesrown bought the land to raise and board horses — is the latest high-profile acquisition. Chesrown later filed for bankruptcy and lost the property.

In a place where change comes as slowly as summer’s current in the Coeur d’Alene River meandering through the valley, the last decade or two have seen a flurry of new easements and ownership that has made the river valley one of the most accessible public corridors in the state.

That’s something James Teare, wildlife regional habitat manager for IDFG, said is one of his agency’s missions.

“Whenever public access is involved, we’re involved,” Teare said.

In an acquisition that was several years in the making, IDFG recently sold 1,400 acres at Lindstrom Peak south of St. Maries to the Idaho Department of Lands. The Lindstrom property — once a cornerstone of public properties in Benewah County — will, however, remain open to the public, Teare said.

Earnings from the $4.3 million sale were used to purchase the Black Lake Ranch property, which includes a large swath of riverfront land between Medimont and Black Lake.

Once a fenced and gated cattle ranch, with its lowland property used to raise hay and wheat, the Black Lake property will soon be a haven for waterfowl, hunters and marsh lovers.

Fish and Game plans to work this summer preparing the land for public access, which includes building parking lots, removing fences and remediating the property.

Because the land is downstream from the Silver Valley, an EPA Superfund site, soil contamination is something the state will likely have to contend with, Teare said. Funding for the remediation is through the Coeur d’Alene Basin Commission.

“We’re looking to clean up the contaminants and restore it to its wetland function,” he said.

Acquiring the Black Lake site brings under public ownership approximately 10,000 acres and 20 miles of river frontage in the Coeur d’Alene River basin between Rose Lake and the river’s confluence near Harrison.

The ranch piece is significant because it is a threshold for the public in the middle of the corridor. Last year, the department bought 385 acres of wetlands connecting the Black Rock Slough to Bull Run Lake near Rose Lake.

“With those purchases, we’ve got linkages across the whole Coeur d’Alene River from the mouth to Rose Lake for wildlife and sportsmen, and that was our goal,” Teare said.

Over the past decade, Donohoe has seen the Union Pacific Railroad railroad right-of-way, which connected the Silver Valley with Plummer, become a bicycle trail. The 72-mile Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes makes a slow meander through the valley with an access point at Medimont.

And in 2010, a 400-acre agricultural parcel at another local ranch — the Schlepp Ranch — was converted to a waterfowl sanctuary.

“It takes it out of the tax rolls,” said Donohoe, 83, whose family homesteaded in the valley at the turn of last century. “That bottomland is the richest farmland in the whole valley.”

He isn’t opposed to the idea of public access to the river and the adjoining lakes that dot the corridor like pearls strung loosely on a string.

“I have mixed reservations,” he said.

The former logger — who along with his wife, Dorothy, owns the Quiet Nook Campground and RV park on Cave Lake — said much of his business comes from cyclists on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.

“I can see it both ways,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed the river and lake all my life.”

Barney Layton, 74, of Medimont, used to hunt the land that was recently acquired by IDFG. In order to maintain the land as farmland, he said, owners ditched and pumped water from the fields to the river.

“That was always a wetland anyways,” Layton said. “I watched a lot of different owners trying to make a living down there.”

Turning the ranch back over to the river and the public seems to make sense, Layton, a former logger, said.

“I don’t have any problem with what they’re doing.”

Donohoe used to hunt on the ranch property as well, but it wasn’t always easy to access, he said. Getting permission wasn’t guaranteed.

Not as it is now, anyway, since its purchase by IDFG.

“Having it for aquatic life, ducks and geese is probably the best use for it,” Donohoe said. “And it does give everyone access.”