Kittitas County staff ask DNR to address wildfire, infrastructure and tax-base impacts of Cle Elum Ridge conservation plan

Kittitas County water-resources staff brought a draft letter to the board seeking direction on how to engage the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) over the Cle Elum Ridge conservation project, a roughly 9,700-acre area purchased for conservation and currently managed by The Nature Conservancy.

Arden Thomas, the county’s water resources manager, told commissioners the county’s concerns fall into three areas: ensuring long-term managers have resources to handle wildfire risk and recreation demand; limiting impacts on county infrastructure such as roads, illegal parking, trash and law enforcement needs; and addressing the tax-base consequences of placing previously private green-zone land into permanent conservation. "We want to make sure that the long term managing entity has the resources to manage the wildfire risk and the recreation that we know there will be demand for on these lands," Thomas said.

Thomas said DNR has signaled receptivity to concerns and that the department would manage the northern two-thirds as trust lands capable of commercial harvest, generating revenue for Kittitas County and other taxing districts. Still, Thomas asked the board for direction on the draft letter, which requests that DNR assign staff to work with county staff to finalize a potential list of parcels and to demonstrate how DNR will address infrastructure impacts and ongoing management responsibilities.

A commissioner voiced support for pursuing the engagement and acknowledged the tax implications the county has raised. No formal board action on the draft letter was recorded in the transcript excerpt; staff sought direction to continue discussions with DNR.