Congress cuts Duck Creek funding

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

In a last-minute action, Congress decided not to fund the purchase of some key wildlife habitat north of West Yellowstone.

However, officials say they will try again next year to complete the $2.5 million Duck Creek deal and are hoping that landowners will be patient.

Another major land project in the area was fully funded, however, and the Gallatin National Forest is seeking money for two other purchases.

The unfunded project was called the Duck Creek Wetlands, a 427-acre property adjacent to Duck Creek and Hebgen Lake, just west of U.S. Highway 191. It includes a sizable wetland and provides critical turf for grizzly bears, bison, elk, birds and other creatures.

Residential development also has been proposed for the land.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., got the U.S. Senate to approve the money, but a joint House-Senate conference committee deleted it.

Burns spokesman J.P. Donovan said the money was cut because Rep. Charlie Taylor, R-N.C., chaired the House side of the committee and he is "adamantly opposed to all land acquisitions (by the government), period. He was fighting tooth and nail."

Instead of funding new projects, like Duck Creek, only ongoing projects got the requested money, Donovan said.

That includes $6.5 million to complete a deal in the wildlife-rich Taylor Fork Drainage with David Brask, owner of the 320 Ranch. That money will buy 3,250 acres from Brask, plus clear up some road and trail easements.

That deal should be finalized by May, Bob Dennee, lands specialist for the Gallatin said Wednesday.

The Gallatin remains interested in in the Duck Creek property.

"It remains a high priority for acquisition by the Forest Service," Dennee said.

A group of investors called Duck Creek Partners owns the land and the Trust for Public Land holds a purchase option on it that expires at the end of 2003. The trust planned to transfer the land to the U.S. Forest Service, but now the Forest Service doesn't have the cash.

The trust hopes to "find a conservation solution for that property," said Alex Deikmann, of the Trust's Bozeman office. "We're trying to reevaluate where we stand."

Dennee said the Gallatin also is working on another land deal, this one along the east side of the Yellowstone River north of Corwin Springs.

The proposal calls for buying a conservation easement on 675 acres of the Slip and Slide Ranch, owned by the Rigler family. It also calls for buying about 10 acres between U.S. Highway 89 and the river. That is the last major piece of private land east of the river between Gardiner and Yankee Jim Canyon

The easement would allow the family to continue outfitting and ranching on the land, but would ban residential development.

The cost is estimated at $1.5 million to $2 million, but will be finalized through an appraisal.

The earliest money could be available for that or the Duck Creek project is 2004.

Dennee said the Gallatin also has requested $2 million to complete the Big Sky Lumber Co. swaps, which have been in progress for several years.

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