Washington, Jan. 7 -- More forests and public access are secure thanks to The Nature Conservancy's sale of 12,039 acres of former industrial timber land to the U.S. Forest Service. The land, part of a 2014 purchase of the last industrial timber land in the Blackfoot, was characterized by the checkerboard pattern of public-private ownership that was created more than a century ago - a pattern that made management of the land difficult and costly.
This land is in the upper portions of the Twin Creek watersheds below Wisherd Ridge, as well as west of Placid Lake. It was identified as a priority through a public process, in partnership with the Blackfoot Challenge. This property is near the border of the Rattlesnake Wilderness, the Rattlesnake...