Gold Creek Ranch wins protection

SANDPOINT — More than 600 acres of working forest northeast of Sandpoint will be protected from development through the Forest Legacy Program.

The 643 acres owned by Jim and Virginia Wood contains exceptional natural resource values of national, regional and local significance. The family has sustainably managed the forestland for timber production, cattle and recreation for more than 70 years.

The Wood family’s desire to participate in the Forest Legacy Program arose from changes the family saw throughout rural Bonner County, where subdivisions, urban sprawl and land development began to consume large contiguous tracts of productive forestland. The family’s deep ties to the forest and concerns the land could someday be developed were reasons for placing a conservation easement on the ranch, according to a statement announcing the Gold Creek Ranch’s inclusion in the program.

The Gold Creek Ranch Corp. partnered with the U.S. Forest Service, the Idaho Department of Lands and the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Conservancy to protect the  land from development.

The easement project is sponsored and will be co-managed by the conservancy, a nonprofit land trust based in Sandpoint. The conservancy points out that the Gold Creek Ranch is next to national forestlands and provides for a critical wildlife corridor and prime habitat for elk, moose, bear, native trout and other wildlife.

Participation in the Forest Legacy Program is voluntary and provides landowners with a tool to ensure their lands continue to provide the conservation and forestry values for which their properties have traditionally been managed. A one-time purchase of developmental rights by the state of Idaho, these conservation easements ensure the lands will forever remain as working forestlands.