Cowiche Canyon Conservancy

“Cowiche Canyon Conservancy (CCC) owns approximately 3,445 acres of native shrub-steppe, oak woodland and riparian habitat for conservation, recreation and educational purposes. CCC also holds a donated conservation easement on a 47 acre parcel used for conservation and non-motorized recreational trails. In 2014, CCC entered into a cooperative agreement with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to acquire an additional 2,900 acres of conservation easement connected to existing WDFW and CCC lands. The land was acquired to extend our jointly held conservation, recreation and educational mission to a larger landscape. In this transaction, the seller conveyed a deed of grazing easement to CCC, and WDFW subsequently purchased the fee title subject to the grazing easement. CCC accepted the easement in order to promote cooperative conservation agreements for the purpose of conserving shrub-steppe rangelands before whats left of the ranching community breaks up the habitat into rural housing developments. The grazing easement was conveyed directly to CCC as the first part of the fee sale to WDFWthe grazing rights had been considered as part of the appraisal of the whole fee parcel, so a separate value for the grazing deed was not established. There is a five year grazing lease conveyed with grazing easement. The lease fee is $2,000 per year. The easement deed stipulates that the lease income be applied to stewardship and maintenance of the project lands, which supports the conservation mission. The grazing easement is a recorded deed that runs with the title vested in WDFW, but CCC cannot enter into a third party transaction to sell or convey the interest. This is a non-cash asset that has the potential to generate business-related income.”

“This is a restricted fund with the long term goal of building this fund to serve as a perpetual source of revenue for annual operations. The goal is to build this fund to a principal amount of $5,000,000 at which time an amount of $200,000 (assumes 4% earnings rate) may be withdrawn annually and still maintain the fund's principal balance.The Budget & Finance Committee will be responsible for review and recommendation to the Board of Directors for the annual distribution amount.”