Western Colorado land swap runs into

opposition

By Nancy Lofholm
The Denver Post
Posted: 08/17/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT

GRAND JUNCTION — A land swap involving one of the richest men in the world and
a congressman who enjoys hunting on the ranch has stirred up local controversy
and riled a national land-exchange watchdog group.

U.S. Rep. John Salazar introduced a bill in April that would give energy magnate Bill
Koch just over 1,840 acres of Bureau of Land Management land and a 3-acre sliver
of Forest Service land in Gunnison County for Koch giving the National Park Service
991 acres in Dinosaur National Monument and the Curecanti National Recreation
Area.

The trade was initiated more than two years ago by Koch — the world's 316th
richest man, according to Forbes, and Salazar's most generous campaign
contributor.

A representative of Salazar's said the swap was initiated by Gunnison County

officials and that it has garnered support from local officials as well as national
politicians and agencies. The National Park Service supports the swap because it will
ensure protection of two valuable pieces of land that otherwise could be developed.
U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall of Colorado have filed a companion
measure in the Senate.

But others, including some staffers at the Bureau of Land Management, worry that
Koch will be getting land with much higher value because of its potential for energy
development. They also complain that there was very little opportunity for public
input and scrutiny of the deal. There were no public hearings specifically devoted to
gathering public comment, as there are with most proposed government land
swaps.

"I'm not very pleased about it. It doesn't look like a very good deal for me or other
people in this area," said Tony Prendergast, a former Forest Service ranger. He said
good hunting land will be taken out of the public domain and that a conservation
easement that is to be part of the trade wouldn't prevent Koch from drilling there.

That kind of talk brings Koch representative Brad Goldstein to shouting anger.

"It's absurd," Goldstein said of criticism that the swap would not benefit the public
and of allegations the matter purposefully avoided adequate public scrutiny. "They
are trying to twist and distort this."

Lack of spotlight

At the root of the controversy is the fact that the swap is being carried out with
legislation rather than through an administrative process as most of the land swaps
in the country are done.

That means there is no environmental review process before the trade takes place:
There are no formal public hearings that would put a spotlight on the trade rather
than making it just another item on a county commission's agenda.
That is one reason a national watchdog group devoted to overhauling the way the government trades public land is looking
askance.

The Western Lands Project in Seattle is questioning the transparency and is troubled that Koch included land in two states
(Colorado and Utah) and land involving two federal management agencies. Those factors guarantee the trade must be
done through legislation.

"The thing that bothers me about this bill — it appears to me this whole thing was engineered to keep it out of the normal
public process. All of our questions could have been answered if this hadn't been done legislatively," Western Lands
director Janine Blaeloch said.

Salazar spokesman Eric Wortman contends questions have been answered. And he pointed out that the proposal, the
Central Rockies Land Exchange and National Park System Enhancement Act of 2010, has a long way to go before it can be
passed.

Wortman said his boss introduced the bill only after he was approached by Gunnison County officials to do so.

Gunnison officials supported the effort after Koch's representatives came to town to present the potential trade. Having a
visitor center along Blue Mesa Reservoir, as the Park Service plans if the swap goes through, would boost tourism in that
county.

Goldstein said the public has already had plenty of opportunity to comment while the issue was on the agendas of the
Gunnison County commissioners, the Gunnison City Council and Gunnison Trails Commission.

Trails Commission chairwoman Jolene Fending said she agreed to support the swap because it comes with assurances that
trails will be upgraded. But the method bothers her.

"I prefer the good old public process with hearings," she said.

About 100 land trades have been carried out in Western states since 2003. Fewer than 20 percent of those have been
done through legislation, which is not the favored method of land managers.

"We can offer our input on these, but at the end of the day we do what Congress tells us," said Steve Renal, a lands
program specialist with the Forest Service.

Koch, 69, rarely is seen around Gunnison and Delta counties, but he is considered a formidable figure there. Between his
ranch and his energy businesses, he employs about 400 people and is a big donor to local causes.

He is the founder, owner and president of the Palm Beach, Fla.-based Oxbow Group. Oxbow owns the West Elk Coal Mine
down the road from Koch's 5,000-acre ranch. Koch is also the owner of Gunnison Energy Corp., a company involved in gas
drilling and transport in Gunnison, Mesa and Delta counties.

Goldstein said Koch is only interested in having a much larger ranch in Gunnison County so he can hunt and ride horses
and have a place to put his extensive collection of Western memorabilia. He has had enough of people trespassing from
the quarter-mile-wide strip of public land that runs through the ranch. The trade would fix that.

Andy Weissmann with the Western Land Group, a land-exchange consulting firm that is bordering the swap, said the public
should be as happy with the trade as Koch is: The National Parks system will be getting two key pieces of land in the
exchange.

Koch chose those pieces to use in a trade for the land near his ranch after consulting with public land managers.

Option on monument

Koch doesn't quite own all the property he proposes to trade. He holds a $300,000 option to purchase a piece in the
Dinosaur National Monument in Utah that includes the homesite of the monument founder. If the swap goes through, Koch
would exercise that option, then turn it over to the Park Service.

Koch's other piece of land for trade is on the south side of Blue Mesa Reservoir where the Park Service wants to build a
visitor center. Koch paid $2.7 million for that land.
A document now floating around Delta County is helping to sour the public on the exchange. That leaked document
includes the reservations of BLM land specialists on the proposed trade.

They fear that a valuable area with high potential for energy development will be removed from the public domain.After
the questions about that portion of the trade began flying, Koch agreed to let the federal government keep the mineral
rights.

But that is the subject of much local speculation. Koch this summer acquired the rights to drill on the land. Goldstein said
that was done to keep anyone else from drilling there.

Koch has agreed to place a conservation easement on the land. But the BLM assessment calls that easement
"questionable."

The document pointed out that there is no protection in the bill for endangered greenback cutthroat trout located on the
exchange lands. And the BLM assessment also took issue with the fact that the bill does not require any public process
under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Goldstein calls the BLM leak of the document "deplorable."

Critics of the trade call it a godsend.

"This is far from a done deal," said exasperated Salazar aide Wortman. "There is still a lot of time for comment."

Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com

Breaking down the land-swap deal

Parcels of land being swapped with energy magnate Bill Koch, left, in a deal that is part of a U.S. House bill carried by Rep.
John Salazar and a similar Senate bill:

WHAT KOCH GETS

• Some 1,846 acres of Bureau of Land Management land

• Three acres of U.S. Forest Service land in Gunnison County

WHAT U.S. GETS

• 80 acres in Dinosaur National Monument in Utah on which he holds an option

• 911 acres in Curecanti National Recreation Area for which Koch paid $2.7 million