What We Do

As a clearinghouse for information on land trades, the Western Land Exchange Project…

Disseminates information about ongoing and planned land swaps

Our newsletter, Land Exchange Update, provides news and analyses on land swaps around the West and beyond. The Western Land Exchange Project website is regularly updated to provide the public with information and opportunities for action.

Provides regulatory and environmental analysis of exchange proposals

Analyses have included:

• Grand Targhee Resort Exchange, Wyoming
   
• Interstate-90, Huckleberry, and Stehekin exchanges, Washington
   
• Crown Pacific, Guistina, Umpqua, Steens, Thornton Creek, Oregon Land Exchange Act, and Times-Mirror exchanges, Oregon
   
• Nicholson, Pits, Jasper, and Chain Lakes Assembled exchanges, Idaho
   
• Turner (Catawba) Exchange, Catawba, Virginia
   
• Rosemont Ranch, Ray Mine, Dos Pobres/San Juan, and Yavapai Ranch exchanges, Arizona
   
• Washington County Habitat Conservation Area (St. George) exchanges, and legislated West Desert Land Exchange, Utah

Networks with environmental organizations and communities affected by land exchanges

We have visited with community groups in Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Montana, Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah-- ( even Michigan and Virginia!)-- to assist with problematic land swaps. We maintain contact with numerous organizations to share information. We assist groups and individuals in evaluating trades and formulating strategies, and help them understand how to use the process more effectively.

We work with both individuals and organizations in all eleven of the western states. In five years, we have formed a solid network of activists who monitor land trades in their areas and work with us to address these projects.
 

Assists citizen groups with administrative and legal actions

Each week, we receive requests for assistance from local groups facing land swaps in their areas. We work collaboratively with environmental and ad-hoc citizen groups, both to advance their work and to address general land exchange policy.

We have provided legal, environmental, and strategic advice on land exchanges to groups and individuals in more than 50 localities. Here are some examples:

• Railroads & Clearcuts Campaign: We’ve worked for four years with The Lands Council on the development of its Railroads & Clearcuts Campaign, which addresses continuing problems on the lands granted to the Northern Pacific Railway and later "inherited" by Weyerhaeuser, Boise Cascade, Plum Creek, and other timber companies.
   
• The Center for Biological Diversity: We are currently working with the Center on the Ray Mine and Dos Pobres Mine land exchanges in Arizona and the Lincoln County Land Act land sale in Nevada.
   
• Save the Scenic Santa Ritas: This Tucson citizens’ group successfully fought the Rosemont Ranch Land Exchange between ASARCO and the Forest Service.
   
• Sierra Club: We worked with the Oregon Chapter/Juniper Group of the Sierra Club to confront problems with the Crown Pacific Exchange near Bend, Oregon and the Thornton trade in the Fremont National Forest. We have also collaborated on a number of projects with the Grand Canyon Chapter in Arizona.
   
• Citizens for Teton Valley, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, and Greater Yellowstone Coalition: These groups requested information to help them fight a land trade in the Targhee National Forest. We provided regulatory and policy information, filed with them as co-appellants, and provided assistance in their lawsuit. The groups won a favorable court decision that called for new analysis of the project by the Forest Service.
   
• Idaho Wildlife Federation and Idaho Conservation League: We worked with IWF and ICL on an exchange between the Forest Service and a Boise businessman who proposed trading 500 acres of private land for 5,000 acres of public land. Frustrated with problems in the exchange and increasing controversy, the private party withdrew from the swap in June 1998.
   
• Pilchuck Audubon Society, Pacific Crest Biodiversity Project: We founded the Western Land Exchange Project as a direct result of our work with Pilchuck (PAS) on the Huckleberry Land Exchange. We work with PCBP on issues associated with the Plum Creek Timber Company checkerboards. PCBP and Western Land Exchange Project were key participants in a successful campaign to remove critically important public lands from the legislated I-90 Land Exchange.

Consults with agencies that are planning exchanges

We meet and/or correspond with officials in the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and other agencies. In the case of the Forest Service, many of the reforms we have suggested have been adopted as new policy--including improved public notification, release of appraisal information, and disclosure of road miles and damaged lands acquired by the public.
 

Advocates at all levels of government for the reform of land exchange policies and regulations

We have brought our case for policy reform to Members of Congress, the USDA, Council on Environmental Quality, Office of Management and Budget, Inspectors General, General Accounting Office, and even the Internal Revenue Service.

The Western Land Exchange Project is the only public-interest organization in the country dedicated solely to the issue of federal land trades.

To learn more about what we do, see our newsletters, read our Project News page, and contact us at info@westernlands.org.