The Board of Commissioners of Public Lands has approved the purchase of nearly a thousand acres of primarily woodland in the town of Minocqua from American Timberland LLC. The purchase price was just over $1.1 million. The vote was 2-1 to make the purchase. The land is on the Oneida-Price county line.
BCPL Executive Secretary Jonathan Barry says the legislature has ordered the agency to sell non-productive lands and purchase productive timberlands. Barry says this property has high-quality timber which can be sustainably harvested. Barry says BCPL is not a conservation agency, instead chartered by the Wisconsin Constitution to make money for schools through forestry and loans to local governments.
Barry says the purchase allows BCPL to block in this parcel with some other lands they have nearby and retain forestry....
"....should BCPL not buy this land, the seller made it real clear they would heavily cut the timber and parcel the land into chunks and sell it off. That would take that large block of productive timber out of the woodshed, as it will, for northern Wisconsin which is important for the northern Wisconsin mills and loggers and the northern Wisconsin economy...."
Barry says the purchase will help balance the agency's portfolio and help to keep the money coming to the state's schools. The Commission is made up of the state's Constitutional officers, including the Attorney General, Secretary of State and Treasurer. Attorney General Brad Schimel and Secretary of State Doug La Follette voted for the purchase, Treasurer Matt Adamczyk was opposed.
