None The Nature Conservancy in Washington Press Releases Search All Press Releases Leslie Brown Phone: (206) 343-4345, ext. 379 E-mail: leslie_brown@tnc.org Kevin Danby Rimrock Meadows Association Phone: (509) 754-3312

Nature Conservancy protects 2,800 acres of shrub-steppe

Purchase ensures open space for wildlife and nearby property-owners

Seattle, WA — April 2, 2001 — The Nature Conservancy of Washington has purchased 2,800 acres in development rights adjacent to a small subdivision in Douglas County, eliminating more than 1,000 legal home lots and protecting important open space for property-owners and wildlife.

The Conservancy bought the development rights -- also called a conservation easement -- from Rimrock Meadows, a company engaged in recreational sales and development.

The purchase is a significant move for the Conservancy, which is building a community-based conservation program in North Central Washington to protect and restore the area's remaining high-quality shrub-steppe habitat. The Conservancy recently purchased the 3,588-acre Moses Coulee Preserve in Douglas County and the 4,783-acre Beezley Hills Preserve further south in Grant County.

But even with such protection efforts underway, fragmentation continues to threaten this once-vast landscape, compromising the viability and health of many shrub-steppe dependent species. The easement helps to address that pressing issue, by dissolving the legal lots and building on the work the Conservancy already has underway in the Moses Coulee area.

What's more, it adds to the quality of life of those people who have already purchased property at Rimrock Meadows, a small subdivision adjacent to the protected area. Those property owners now have open space available for passive recreation, views that are forever protected and an area where they can continue to hunt deer and non-native birds.

"It's a classic win-win situation," said Chuck Warner, the Conservancy's North Central Washington conservation projects manager. "It's an important and strategically located property for our work in North Central Washington. But it also provides a beautiful vista and some wonderful open space for adjacent property-owners."

Kevin Danby, president and general manager of Rimrock Meadows Association, a 950-member property-owners association, said the sale made enormous sense to the organization.

"Our intent all along has been to protect this land. By selling an easement to the Conservancy, we not only derive some money from it but also ensure that the property is protected from future development," Danby said.

Conservation easements are a tool used by many land trusts and property owners today. Sometimes donated but usually purchased, these easements are restrictions landowners agree to have placed on their property, protecting the land in perpetuity by legally binding the actions of present and future owners.