WILDLIFE LAND ACQUISITION PROJECT:

The Spokane Tribe Blue Creek Winter Range Project was developed to mitigate the construction and inundation losses associated with Grand Coulee Dam.  The losses to the Spokane Tribe of Indians totaled 6679 HU's (1986 Final Report: Wildlife Protection, Mitigation and Enhancement Planning for Grand Coulee Dam) for Sharp-tailed grouse, Ruffed grouse, Mourning dove, Mule deer, White-tailed deer, and riparian forest cover type.

During 1996-2006, a total of 4,466.64 acres of land have been acquired as partial mitigation for the Grand Coulee losses.  Properties have been acquired in the following Wildlife Mitigation Areas on the Spokane Indian Reservation:  Blue Creek, Cottonwood, Fox Creek, McCoy Lake Watershed, Peaks/Wellpinit Mt., and Tshimikan Creek.

In FY07, the project was able to acquire 30 tracts of lands that totaled 3936.92 acres.  The Forest Capital Partners (FCP) land acquisition consisted of 29 individual tracts ranging is size from 40 to 600 acres (average acreage was 135).  All of the FCP lands are within the boundaries of the Spokane Indian Reservation.  FCP is a private timber company that had acquired lands on the Spokane Indian Reservation that had been previously owned by the Boise Cascade Corporation.  Originally the Project was proposed as a 3-year proposal, but funding was available in FY07 to complete the purchase in its entirety.  The second acquisition was the 10-acre Allotment 184-C purchase that was started in FY06, but due to many unforeseen road blocks was not able to be completed until September 2007.

Even though the actual land acquisition work was completed in FY07, There are aspects of acquiring land that still needs to be completed before this contract can be closed out or rolled over into the Spokane Tribe Wildlife Mitigation Operation & Maintenance project (# 1998-003-00).  The Post-acquisition items that still need to be addressed include completion of the HEP analysis for crediting BPA for protection credits, any legal surveys that may be needed for accurate property boundary delineation, and potential land swaps for consolidating the lands from the checker board pattern that currently exists.  The Wildlife Program will be working with BPA and the Spokane Tribal Business Council in FY08 to determine if lands swaps are a feasible means to consolidate the Wildlife lands for improved efficiency of the management of the parcels.  Completion of land swaps may require additional work that is traditionally considered to be pre-acquisition activities, but may be necessary during post-acquisition.