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FWP proposes buying 640 acres for management area

About 25 people attended a public meeting Thursday to discuss Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' proposal to buy about 640 acres of property about 45 miles northwest of Havre for $700,000, and attendees raised many questions.

The meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Hill County Electric Hospitality Room concerned buying land to add to the Lost River Wildlife Management Area, a 3,000-acre stretch of land around the Milk River the state bought in 2012 amid a pile of controversy.

At that time, people said the purchase was made in a closed-door negotiations that shut out local property owners and overpriced the land, leading some to close their land to hunting in protest.

One of the land's sellers, Dave Aageson, defended the nearly $6 million sale in a June 2013 meeting of the FWP Commission in Havre, saying the land is unique to the area and is an archaeological, paleontological and environmental treasure.

The primary reason for the proposed 640-acre purchase, FWP Wildlife Biologist Scott Hemmer said, is to maintain the wildlife values and resources of the land, to enhance the land and to provide public recreation.

"It's nice to see a good turnout," Hemmer said. "Sometimes it's hard to know what people are thinking when only three show up."

Negotiations for the land, which is within the Lost River WMA, started in 2014, Hemmer said. Seventy-five percent of the money for the land would come from the Pittman-Robertson Act, which among other things, includes taxes on ammo, and another 25 percent from Habitat Montana.

Both the federal and state programs primarily use money from the sale of hunting licenses and taxes on firearms and ammunition.

Among the concerns people expressed Thursday night was the issue of the government buying more land. Other were concerned that FWP might not properly maintain the land, with one person mentioning an abundance of weeds, Canadian thistle especially, that would need eradication. How would they do it, he asked.

Get on a four-wheeler and spray, Hemmer told the man.

After Hemmer said FWP owning the land would keep it from being developed, someone retorted facetiously that it was relieving to know nobody would be putting up subdivisions in a such a remote area.

Others wanted to know why the land was appraised so low, especially compared to a sell-off nearby four years ago.

"This was shoved down our throat four years ago," one audience member said.

The average acre appraisal on the land is $1,094, with $1,375 for recreational-type acre and $425 for rangeland acre.

The average price paid by FWP in 2012 was $1,570.

Hemmer said he wasn't in the appraising business and could not say why the appraisal is what it is. When asked if it's possible to get a re-appraisal, people were told that it was.

A draft environmental assessment for the property can be found on the FWP website at fwp.mt.gov/news/publicNotices. Also, FWP encourages the public to send comments to the FWP website or directly to Hemmer at [email protected] or by mail to  Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Attn: Lost River WMA Addition Proposal, 2165 Hwy 2 East, Havre, MT 59501.

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Havre Daily News editor Tim Leeds contributed to this story.

 

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