The Bonneville Power Administration is joining ongoing conservation efforts in the Swan Valley with recent land acquisition and easement proposals.

The federal power agency is taking public comments during the next month on two proposals in the Swan Valley, a lush stretch of forest land divided by checkerboard state, federal and private ownerships.

BPA is proposing about $1.1 million in funding to complete a conservation easement on Plum Creek Timber Co. lands in the Goat and Squeezer creek drainages at the north end of the Swan Valley.

The transaction, approved in December by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, protects about 7,200 acres of Plum Creek timberlands through conservation easements that limit development but allow timber management and public access. But the state could afford to purchase only 6,083 acres, primarily using funding from the federal Forest Legacy Program.

An easement on the balance of 1,121 acres is expected to cost about $1.4 million. The BPA proposal would provide $1.1 million, and the rest would be paid by the Trust for Public Land, said Gael Bissell, a wildlife biologist who is coordinating the project for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

A BPA press release says that in exchange for its contribution to the project, the federal agency would receive credit for its obligation to mitigate environmental impacts resulting from the construction of Hungry Horse Dam and reservoir.

BPA also is proposing to fund the acquisition of about 640 acres of Plum Creek lands in the Elk Creek drainage at the southern end of the Swan Valley. The purchase involves an entire section of land surrounding the creek, and a major spawning tributary for bull trout and its confluence with the Swan River.

The land has not been appraised, Bissell said, but the BPA proposal is for $5 million.

If the land is acquired by BPA, it would be managed by the Swan Ecosystem Center, a nonprofit community organization based in Condon. BPA would ensure long-term protection of the land with a permanent conservation easement that would allow some forest-management activities and prohibit development. This acquisition also would result in credit for mitigating impacts from Hungry Horse Dam and reservoir.

As a Real Estate Investment Trust, Plum Creek announced several years ago its intentions to sell about 20,000 acres of its Swan Valley holdings in small development tracts. That prompted Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes, the Trust for Public Lands, the Swan Ecosystem Center and other entities to pursue conservation easements and land acquisitions in the Swan Valley.

Public comments are being accepted by BPA through June 1. Comments should be submitted to: BPA, Public Affairs Office, DKC-7, P.O. Box 14428, Portland, OR, 97293-4428.

More information about the proposals is available on the Internet at:

http://www.bpa.gov/comment