Department defends land swap with timber company
Copyright 2000 Associated Press
December 19, 2000
ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Conservation Department is defending a land trade it made with a timber company, though the land it received was nearly stripped of trees, and the company already chopped away much of its new tract.
Last year, the department swapped 477 acres of state forest land, in Texas and Shannon counties, for the timber company's adjacent 1,550 acres. The two tracts were appraised for about the same value, more than $300,000.
But the state's net gain in land came with a net loss of something else: trees.
A watchdog group called Mark Twain Forest Watchers is criticizing the swap. The group wants the Conservation Commission to subject future trades to more public debate.
The land the state received from LEDC Corp. of Montezuma, Ga., is near Alley Spring, between the Jacks Fork and Current rivers, and shared many boundaries with state land. It had been heavily cut, leaving brush, a few bent or dying spires and a lot of tree trunks behind.
At least a third of the tract given up by the state was heavily logged, before LEDC sold the land to someone else, in the same manner as the land the state received.
Hank Dorst, a member of the Mark Twain Forest Watchers, calls the trade a travesty.
"I wish I'd known about it before they started cutting the trees," Dorst said. "Essentially the Department of Conservation allowed itself to be taken advantage of by an out-of-state company that turned over land it didn't want anymore in exchange for good timber. Most people wouldn't think that was a very good deal."
Conservation Department deputy director John W. Smith disagrees.
"When you look at all the aspects, it was good for Missouri, removing a large segment of private land from the middle of our conservation area, to allow reforestation on a much larger scale."
Don Schultehenrich, real estate supervisor for the department, said state officials went into the deal with eyes open.
"The reason (LEDC) was interested in disposing of the tract was because they didn't have any need for it. They cut the timber from it," Schultehenrich said. "But looking into the future, the ground will produce trees again. We thought the benefits far outweighed the timber resources we were giving up."
The state has no plans to plant trees or rehabilitate the Alley Spring site to speed up reforestation. It could take 50 years or more for the site to grow a new forest.
"We don't see the 1,550 acres as being valueless," Smith said. "The trees have been harvested, but they are growing back. There are wildlife values as well. A younger-age forest has value for wildlife."
Dennis Carey, one of the principals of LEDC, said if the state had not gone for the trade, his company would have sold the land to someone else.
"There's a market there" for cut-over land, Carey said. LEDC has been selling land that it has logged almost as fast as it has been buying land with trees, he said.
LEDC acquired the state land in October 1999, then cut a portion of timber from it before selling the parcel, near Ashley Creek, to Earl Renegar and Mary Renegar of Birch Tree in November 1999. The Renegars, in turn, sold it to Cliff Brown in March.
Dorst and the Forest Watchers say trades such as that with LEDC should be open to more public scrutiny. They would have liked to ask questions about the merits of a swap compared with a purchase.
Putting such a trade as an item on the commission's agenda is not enough notice, Dorst said. He would have liked a public hearing.
Schultehenrich of the Conservation Department said, "It's not like we were trying to conceal anything. At the same time, there were no flashing lights" calling attention to the trade.