Hearing on Floras Lake

Floras Lake from the air.\Photo by Alex Derr.

The long-sought Floras Lake land swap will be on the Curry County commissioners’ agenda when they meet on Wednesday, 9 a.m., in the County Annex Building (94235 Moore St.).  The proposal is for State Parks to swap about 33 acres at the intersection of Airport Rd and Hwy 101 (across from Pacific High School) in North Curry for 70 acres of the county's lands south of Floras Lake, adjacent to Floras Lake Natural Area. 

According to our colleague Ann Vileisis of Kalmiopsis Audubon:  “Last fall, appraisals were conducted for both properties, and the county land came in as being less valuable, owing to lack of public access and poor timber. To make up for the difference, OPRD has proposed 2 options --to do the same swap but with 90 acres instead of 70, or to do a 70-acre swap but add a conservation easement over an additional area. Either of these options would work (I think the outright swap would be more straightforward), but the key thing is to ask the Commissioners to move ahead with resolving this land swap that has been in the works for many years, and to NOT go back to the drawing board.”

You can read the proposal and see maps of the options here, see Agenda Item 7a:

The  commissioners will probably decide what direction to pursue at this meeting so local conservationists who favor preserving the county lands at Floras Lake in a natural state are urged to attend.  Comments can be made at the outset of the meeting, or can be held until the issue actually comes up on the agenda later in the morning.

If you cannot attend, you can also send an email to the commissioners or make a phone call. Here are email addresses: 

Chris Paasch <PaaschC@co.curry.or.us>

Court Boice <boicec@co.curry.or.us>

Sue Gold <golds@co.curry.or.us>

Phone number for the commissioners is (541) 247-3296.