WDFW slates meet on Bonnie Lake proposal

In the wake of two tense public meetings full of protesting land-owners, the state department of fish and wildlife is holding its own public meeting April 27.

The game department is floating a proposal to turn thousands of acres of farmland along Bonnie and Rock Lake into a state-owned, public water corridor.

More than 40 land-owners, some from families that have farmed the land for more than 100 years, have strongly protested the state’s plan. Protestors came to a county park board meeting and a county commissioner meeting in March.

Regional wildlife program manager Kevin Robinette attended the commissioner’s meeting, and after hearing those sentiments, will be hosting the April 27 meeting at the District 3 Fire Station 39, on West Cheney-Plaza Road.

Robinette has been told by many landowners they are unwilling to sell their land. Robinette has told those same landowners, as was emphasized at the commissioner’s meeting, that the department works on a willing seller basis.

All the same, dozens of landowners have said, in the presence of Robinette, under no condition would they sell their land.

The meeting on April 27, according to a press release sent out by the department, is to clearly explain to the public the state’s plan.

The game department is interested in turning that corridor into a park to create more public access in and to protect the diverse range of species living there. The department currently has an application for a $3.6 million grant in to the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office to purchase farming land for the corridor. Award of the grant will not be decided until next fall.

The land in question holds homes, barns, cattle, wheat and lentil fields and untouched forest throughout.

“At this time we are simply trying to measure landowner interest in possible future easements or acquisitions,” Robinette said in the press release. “We do not have grant money in hand to purchase property or conservation easements from willing sellers, but we need to determine if there are landowners who want to work with us in the future.”