Forest Service adds land near Northport to Colville National Forest in $2.4 million deal

The Colville National Forest just got a little bigger.

The United States Forest Service bought 2,391 acres of former timber land just west of Northport this month. The sale, worth $2.4 million, was facilitated by Oregon-based nonprofit Western Rivers Conservancy, and will increase user access to the Pacific Northwest Scenic National Trail, a 1,200-mile system that snakes its way from Montana’s Glacier National Park to the Pacific Ocean.

“This will preserve the integrity of that route,” said Franklin Pemberton, a spokesman for the Colville National Forest. “I think this is one of those instances where the stars aligned.”

Western Rivers stepped in to buy the land last year, at a cost of about $2 million, from a pair of commercial timber companies. They turned around and closed a sale with the Forest Service on Dec. 8.

“The combination of recreation access and high-quality habitat made it a perfect project for us,” said Sue Doroff, cofounder and president of the Portland-based conservation group that has previously acquired land on the Skagit River to preserve fish habitat there. The nonprofit also has acquired conservation lands near the Hoh River in Olympic National Park, as well as many other projects in Oregon, Idaho, California, Colorado, Montana and Utah.

The Big Sheep Creek property, as its known, will add to the more-than 1 million acres already comprising the Colville National Forest. The land has known wolverine, grizzly bear and Canadian lynx populations, Doroff said, and will link the Kettle Mountains with the Cascade range.

“It has this really intact, beautiful habitat,” she said. “It’s rare when you can see a body of water be as natural as Big Sheep Creek is.”

The purchased parcels make up an “L” shape of land in what Pemberton described as a “wedge” between the Columbia River and U.S. Highway 395. The northern boundary of the Big Sheep Creek property juts north nearly to the Canadian border.

Stevens County asked that Western Rivers pay a tax of about $195,000 after selling the land to the federal government. Western Rivers paid the taxes under protest, arguing it qualified for an exemption under state law.

“We interpreted the state tax code one way, and the county interpreted it another,” Doroff said. “We simply had a difference of opinion.”

The taxes made up roughly half of the difference between the price Western Rivers paid to acquire the land and the amount it received from the Forest Service. Patrick Bridegam, a realty specialist for the Colville National Forest, said it’s typical for appraisals made using federal standards to come in slightly above open market valuations.

“I think we’re pretty well within normal differences there,” Bridegam said of the difference between the two sale prices.

“We just sell it for the appraised value, is all,” Doroff said. “Sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose.”

Both Doroff and the Forest Service representatives said the acquisition would be a boon to outdoor enthusiasts looking to hike, camp and even gold-pan in the forested terrain surrounding Big Sheep Creek.

“This is a significant acquisition,” Pemberton said. “We haven’t done this in a long time.”