© 2002
The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
All rights reserved

Send us an email

Display Advertising

Residents speak out against land swap
By Jim Cornelius

Attorney Paul Dewey (at map) explains the Squaw Creek land swap proposal. George Stroemple is at right.

Sisters area residents turned out some 200 strong to voice their opposition to a proposal that would give a local man land along Squaw Creek in exchange for property he owns in the Steens Mountain wilderness.

The Sisters City Council hosted a town hall meeting on the swap on Tuesday, June 18. No formal legislation has been crafted, but the proposal has created considerable controversy in Sisters, where many have expressed concern about loss of public access and potential development of forest lands.

Land owner George Stroemple offered a scaled-back version of the swap, reducing the Squaw Creek acreage he seeks from 690 acres to 462 acres. Stroemple owns 1,240 acres of in-holding in the Steens Mountain Wilderness that the federal government and many environmentalists want brought into the wilderness.

Stroemple offered provisions that would allow public access to 250 acres of the Squaw Creek parcel for daytime, non-motorized uses and a 30-foot easement along the west side of Squaw Creek.

The land owner has also offered $100,000 to the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council for stream and fisheries improvements.

Stroemple, who has a residence on adjacent land, would build no more than two houses and a caretaker unit on the property he seeks to acquire. Any destination resort or golf course would be expressly forbidden.

The revised proposal did not seem to dampen opposition to the idea of a swap. Numerous area residents spoke out against the proposal.

"I have a strong desire to keep this land public," said Wayne Jack, a neighbor and leading opponent of the swap. "This is a prime piece of land that is heavily used by the public."

Many area residents argued that Sisters should not be expected to sacrifice a "treasure" in its backyard to protect another "treasure" in the Steens.

Andy Wiessner of Western Lands Group, a Colorado consulting firm, said that the Steens land includes important redband trout habitat. There are two lots-of-record on the land, and the government and environmentalists don't want to see houses built there.

Wiessner said a land swap is the only way the valuable Steens land will be acquired for wilderness. Funds for an outright purchase are not available.

"The land exchange seems to be, for the near future, the only option," he said.

The proposal is being handled through Congress because federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service cannot conduct exchanges, Wiessner said.

But that legislative process is itself a problem for many Sisters residents, who feel that a swap is forcing Sisters to make a sacrifice without giving the community a voice.

That point of view got some support from Janine Blaeloch of Western Land Exchange Project, a Seattle watchdog group.

"We have been uniformly opposed to legislative land exchanges for the very reasons of what we see happening in this community," Blaeloch said. "People are forced to make some very, very horrendous choices."

A handful of audience members spoke in favor of the swap, most arguing that Stroemple would do a better job of managing the property than the Forest Service has.

Neighbor Guy Mount said, "he's been a good steward of his property and he's been a good neighbor."

Mount said that Stroemple's proposed conditions address concerns about public access and he has confidence that Stroemple will follow through on his commitments.

But the overwhelming majority of audience members were opposed to the swap regardless of conditions.

Congressional staff from the offices of Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith and Congressman Greg Walden were on hand to hear that message.

Back to front page