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24,000 acre Sawyer County public easemen

The Governor announced this morning that the NRB will be voting later this month on a new conservation easement in Sawyer County. This will add to the 7.5 million acres of public land in WI.

Edit:21,000 acres. Sorry for the mistake.

Can you say “looking for votes.” It was not long ago he was selling public ground I thought.

This has been in the works by the department for a long time. It's coincidence that they came to an agreement now.

The land sale was actually very beneficial to sportsmen if you look at what was sold.

Yes they sold locked parcels that had no access. I would say it would be a smart move to sell these off. They are of no benefit to anyone but adjoining land owners.

If you truly believe he’s looking for votes by finalizing this action, which has been in the works for several years in an area that has a minuscule population you’ve either got one great imagination or are looking for a gripe with a solid action for sportsmen. Some would piss and moan if they were given a million bucks.

$343 per acre sounds like a pretty good deal. Than have a chunk of endowment money for access maintenance to boot is a good thing. I wonder if the seller is keeping the timber rights.

Well, I guess since it is an easement the seller still owns the land and timber. Hope the easement is perpetual. It is in the area of Draper and Winter. Does anyone know anything more specific about the location.

My plat book is 7 yrs. old but it shows 2 land owners with that kind of acreage. Northwoods ATP LP owns a large block between Co. W and HWY 70 and West ofCo. M. Great Lakes Rural Forest Lands owns a lot of land in the same area but it is more scattered. Back in the day I think this was mostly owner by Consolidated Papers.

Goodman Timber is selling a large amount of acreage in the Florence area.

thumbs up!

Drop time said Yes they sold locked parcels that had no access. I would say it would be a smart move to sell these off. They are of no benefit to anyone but adjoining land owners.

This is not 100% true. I lost some public to hunt. A lot of us did.

I understand why the private land locked parcels were only offered to neighbors. Sucky part of it is I doubt the state ever made any attempt to get easements to those parcels. Either along with the process of auctioning them off or during the entire time that the state owned them.

Nocturnal, did you consider partnering up with one of the neighboring landowners to buy the parcel together?

I reviewed nearly all of the land sales as they made their way through the process. Well over 90% of the sales were either to other agencies (or conservation groups) that were required to leave them open to public access or they were in-holdings that were no accessible other than by adjoining landowners. The DNR real estate office had worked to obtain easements but were generally not successful. Frequently it would have required easement from more than one landowner. After all, how often is a landowner going to jump at the idea of giving people access across their land to hunt on public land that is essentially theirs to use. These pieces often sold for less than market value since only neighbors could buy them, but at least the money was put towards the debt on the public lands account (the interest alone was beyond belief) and put them back on the local tax rolls.

Other pieces were odd chunks that were small, had no significant use for the public, etc. I have been told that some parcels that were used by the public were sold, but I have not personally been made aware of one. Not saying there aren't any, I just haven't found them.

This project was maligned by a lot of people that weren't aware of all of the details but I think it was one of the most sound things that has happened in many years.

I learned more about this easement earlier this week. The 7.2 million buys a permanent easement and limited road access-about 20 miles. I am familiar with this land because it is near my house and I am pretty convinced it will likely always be industrial land that would be open to the public. 7.2 million seems like a lot of money for 20 miles of road access into. I am confident that there will be issues with people using roads that are not part of this easement and it will create problems in the future. I voiced these concerns to the Conservation Congress before they voted to support the purchase as well as with several NRB members before they voted on it on Wednesday. They NRB approved the purchase on Wednesday.

What do you mean by 'industrial land'? Timber harvesting, mining, factories?

Large blocks of timber that always have and likely will always be in tax law programs that are open to public access because they are owned by mills or timber management companies that can't afford to close it. This piece was originally paper company land, then Plum Creek, now Northwoods ATP.

For whatever it's worth the paper mill land here in Oneida county is being sold off after they have clear cut trees. We have lost many of our hunting spots because of this. Many times Agencies will buy large parcels and then subdivide it and sell off smaller chunks. Of course the land then is all posted and no access is allowed to the paper mill land behind there. Some large parcels are also being bought by people that can afford them. So any land that the state or DNR can keep open to the public is a good thing.

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