DICKINSON - Base property landowners in Billings County have six months to decide if they want to purchase selected parcels of national grassland conveyed by the United States Forest Service-Dakota Prairie Grasslands.
Base property landowners in Billings County have six months to decide if they want to purchase selected parcels of national grassland conveyed by the United States Forest Service-Dakota Prairie Grasslands.
The process to convey approximately 5,200 acres of selected parcels of national grasslands to the private sector was agreed upon in the historic Elkhorn ranch lands acquisition. It was authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2008 signed by President Bush on Dec. 26, 2007, stated a recent press release.
The land is being sold by the agency to offset their purchase of prime ranch land in the Badlands. The agency acquired the last portion of a two-part acquisition of the historic Elkhorn land in April 2007.
The Forest Service has been working out details to get ready for the conveyance. Due to the legislation, the agency must give the first opportunity to "base property landowners holding a current permit to graze any land authorized for sale under this section shall have a non-assignable first right to buy the land," stated Sec. 422 (b) Land Sales, (4) of the legislation.
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The land parcels have been put into two groups. The primary group has 16 parcels. Value on acres being conveyed range between $279 and $350 an acre. The land parcels are primarily prairie or grasslands in the Badlands.
"We have back-up acreage in case any primary fall out and the last four are the secondary group," U.S. Forest Service Dakota Prairie Grasslands Acting Supervisor Sherry Schwenke said.
The money is to go toward costs of conveyance or other land acquisitions. The agency also must continue leasing the former Eberts ranch under grazing agreements with the Medora Grazing Association.
The reason why landowners in the area were approached first came from concerns from county commissions, grazing associations and others about the increase of federal land holdings in the region. DPG Forest Service Supervisor Dave Pieper previously stated the Forest Service owns 290,000 acres in the area.
This past week, Medora District Ranger Ron Jablonski and his staff sat down with landowners from the county to discuss purchasing details.
"We had about 20 meetings in two days," Jablonski said. "We haven't closed any deals, but it seemed many expressed initial interest in doing it. A lot of conversations revolved around the language of the bill, how much time there is to do this and financial questions I won't go into."
The tone from the talks was positive, but that doesn't necessarily equate to financing being available, he added.
If land isn't purchased by these landowners, Congress stipulates the agency must then sell the parcels competitively.
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Appraisal and other work regarding the Eberts land had to be finalized before the agency could meet with landowners.
"We had already appraised the parcels, but we needed to finalize them with the appraisal reviewer who looks over and verifies what was done," Schwenke said. "We got finalized toward the end of January. Then we created an offer letter."
Jablonski, his staff and others from the agency's Bismarck office have been involved with the process and providing information for appraising the land.
"We've had people on these parcels doing hazardous material assessments, specialists looking at the land's resource value, looking at parcels and establishing priorities," Jablonski said.
Grazing, hunting and oil development must remain as part of the conveyance deal and Schwenke said the agency hopes to have an action plan on management of the land it owns soon.
Last summer, there were public input meetings in the state which yielded some feedback on what people wanted to see done with the land near the Elkhorn ranch.
"We hope to have proposed action in the next month to month and a half," Schwenke said. "It's too preliminary to go over yet. It must be reviewed by the regional and Washington office before it goes out."
The next step is the environmental assessment process required by the National Environmental Protection Agency, she added.
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Neither Schwenke nor Jablonski would reveal the names of those landowners involved. Under the federal Freedom of Information Act the Forest Service does not have to release the names of potential purchasers, or identify the parcels of land which may be sold.
