Officials said Monday the state and federal government will pay a logging company $9.2 million to forest more than 18,000 acres of northern Wisconsin timberland but leave it undeveloped and available for recreational use.
Under the deal, Plum Creek Timberlands will continue to forest the area that borders the Nicolet National Forest and the Upper Wolf River Fishery as well as Langlade County forest land, but leave it undeveloped.
The deal must be approved by the Department of Natural Resources Board, which is scheduled to consider it next week.
Gov. Jim Doyle urged the board in a statement to approve the purchase.
"With this purchase, we are protecting jobs in Wisconsin," Doyle said.
The state will pick up about $6.2 million of the price tag, with the federal government paying the rest.
The purchase would be one of the six largest in state history. The state's share would come from the stewardship fund, through which the state borrows money each year to buy land for recreation, wildlife habitat, state parks, trails, forests and other natural areas.
A portion of the property will be used for a six-mile segment of the Ice Age Trail, which follows the path of the last glacier that cut its way through Wisconsin thousands of years ago. It is also a bird breeding ground.
Plum Creek Timberlands, based in Washington state, owns 514,000 acres of forest in Wisconsin. It has put an estimated 500,000 acres of the more than 7.8 million it owns nationally into similar programs to preserve them, said company spokeswoman Kathy Budinick.
The more than 18,000 acres are already in the state's managed forest program, in which land owners promise to follow a management plan for 25 years while not building on the property. In exchange, land owners pay a lower property tax bill.
Plum Creek just recently signed a 25-year contract under that program.
Still, state officials worried the company could pull out of the program. It would have to pay a penalty for doing so, but state officials say that penalty would pale in comparison to the profit that could be made off selling the land. The state is paying $496 per acre to ensure the land is preserved, less than half of the $1,125 assessed price.
Langlade County Board chairman Mike Klimoski said he was happy to see the land would be preserved. But he questioned why the state was spending the money now while the land was enrolled in a long-term contract to preserve it already.
"You holler you don't have money in one hand and you're throwing it away in another hand," Klimoski said.Associated Press via The St. Paul Pioneer Press
