Case Study
Precious Lands Initiative
Land protection drives wildlife and fisheries conservation and greater equity in Nez Perce communities.
Objective: In the mid-1990's I actively sought work that required identifying, negotiating, and acquiring land to convey to the Tribes of the Columbia River Basin. The Nez Perce Tribe, its government situated in Lapwai, ID, has outstanding wildlife and fisheries programs and helped argue in the 1990's for large utilities to mitigate natural resource damages caused by power generation—primarily by protecting habitat and returning tribal lands. The Nez Perce and the utility were depending on my team at Trust for Public Land to complete essential land transaction projects to realize these mitigation goals.
Challenges: In early 1997 I was concluding the purchase for the Nez Perce Tribe of a 10,000-acre ranch in the breaks of Snake River Country that included Joseph Creek Canyon. This area is all historic Nez Perce homeland. Conserving this anchor site, however, necessitated the purchase of an adjoining 6,000 acres to close out the mitigation obligation and to provide the Tribe with a contiguous wildlife management area. Willing seller participants were few and far between despite the solid relationships my landowner contact program had built.
Solution: Priority owners of adjoining lands were invited to attend a celebration in 1997 that the Tribe would lead on site to reunite the land with its people. For logistical reasons, it made sense to hold the celebration on one of the adjoining landowner properties and the family was more than amenable. Many of the landowners attended. The celebration gained worldwide media attention and rekindled global interest in the Nez Perce story. It also proved to be the breakthrough. I was able to engage one family owning a small parcel in Christmas tree production. I bought it after learning a fair amount about tree farming. I operated the farm for a season before receiving a call from another priority ranchland owner. The rancher's property held substantial habitat, a common boundary with the Tribe's wildlife parcel and road access into the canyonlands. I traded the income-producing tree farm for the rancher's property and negotiated a shared road access agreement between the rancher and the Tribe. Both the Tribe and the utility were satisfied. Homeland with tremendous wildlife and fish habitat value remains in Nez Perce ownership today. At the ceremony the Nez Perce named the returning lands Hetes'wits Wetes or Precious Lands.
Results:
■ 16,250 acres of valuable wildlife and fish habitat were protected.
■ Hetes'wits Wetes wildlife management area program is nationally recognized for its excellent stewardship.
■ Partnerships were established with all the recognized Tribes in the Columbia River Basin. This led to completed projects, large and small, and assisted the Tribes and the utility with the successful completion of the mitigation program.
■ TPL expanded work with Tribes beyond the Columbia River Basin. One project with the Quinault Indian Nation on the Olympic Peninsula coneyed a $32 million conservation easement from the Tribe to the USFWS, ensuring equity in tribal forest management and conservation for the federally listed marbled murrelet.
■ TPL would go on to work with Tribal governments across the United States.
Results:
■ 16,250 acres of valuable wildlife and fish habitat were protected.
■ Hetes'wits Wetes wildlife management area program is nationally recognized for its excellent stewardship.
■ Partnerships were established with all the recognized Tribes in the Columbia River Basin. This led to completed projects, large and small, and assisted the Tribes and the utility with the successful completion of the mitigation program.
■ TPL expanded work with Tribes beyond the Columbia River Basin. One project with the Quinault Indian Nation on the Olympic Peninsula coneyed a $32 million conservation easement from the Tribe to the USFWS, ensuring equity in tribal forest management and conservation for the federally listed marbled murrelet.
■ TPL would go on to work with Tribal governments across the United States.