Payette Land Trust News

The Star News - January 25, 2007
by Michael Wells

Boars Nest Conservation Easement Donation

The Payette Land Trust has landed its biggest tract of land in the organization's 15-year history.

Michael Kilgallon of Atlanta has placed his 852-acre Boars Nest Ranch, located south of Riggins overlooking the Rapid River Fish Hatchery, into a conservation easement.
The action ensures the land remains undeveloped and open to some 200 species of wildlife.

Species on the Idaho Department of Fish & Game Species of Concern list and federally protected endangered species inhabit the land. Black bears, elk herds, gray wolves, Canadian lynx, bald eagles, bighorn sheep and hundreds of other species travel through the property, as well as many species of plants.

The parcel of land includes one residence, two guest cabins, two hay barns, two loft barns, garage and storage shed, corrals and several out buildings. Kilgallon retains his right of ownership. The ranch lies within the Wallowa Mountains-Seven Devils Mountains volcanic arc terrain, according to documentation accompanying of the easement.

There was a time in the geologic past when the location of the ranch was on the west coast of North America. Today, it is located nine miles south of Riggins on Pollock Road off U.S. 95 several hundred miles from the coast.

Kilgallon bought the land about five years ago. When he first drove to the ranch, it was salmon season on the Little Salmon River. "I saw these fishermen yanking these huge salmon out of the river," Kilgallon said. "So it was an emotional purchase to a large extent."

The property has an old cabin and several natural springs on the rolling pastureland and steep slopes. Easement 'made sense' "It's a beautiful piece of property, in a lot of ways it made sense to do this," he said. "It was a way to preserve a piece of property forever and not get hurt too much financially at the same time."

Last year, the deduction for this type of charitable donation rose to 50 percent off the donor's adjusted gross income for a period of 16 years, land trust Executive Director Bob Vosskuhler said.

When Kilgallon decided he wanted to see about preserving the land, he hired an Atlanta area consultant to find the right organization for the land. Kilgallon hired Nancy Zak of Forever Forests, LLC, who works to match land with trusts such as the Payette Land Trust across the country, but mostly in the Southeast United States. "I talked to a couple of different land trusts in the area and then I guided the process for the appraisal," Zak said. She has helped move several thousand acres of land into conservation easements over the past eight years.

This is the eighth tract of land the Payette Land Trust has been able to place into a conservation easement totaling about 2,000 acres. This is the third tract of land to be placed into a conservation easement in the past four months. The other two recent tracts of land to be preserved were 288 acres along the North Fork of the Payette River south of McCall owned by Ron and Mary Nahas, and a 152-acre preserve along the North Fork of the Payette River dedicated by the Blackhawk planned community located southwest of McCall.

The Payette Land Trust was formed in 1993 and is dedicated to protecting and preserving open space in Valley County.

The Land Trust is a member of the Land Trust Alliance, an affiliation of 1,500 land trusts across the country, working together to promote and support land conservation efforts.