YAKIMA, Wash. - The Naches Ranger District is acquiring 2,675 acres of land in a transfer made Tuesday after a group of agencies including the Nature Conservancy bought the land.
The group of non-profits and government agencies used public and private funding to buy this land from Plum Creek Timber Co.
Betsy Bloomfield is the South Central Washington Program Director for the Nature Conservancy. She says people took for granted that they had access to this land before today's purchase
"Many people probably visited it, never knowing they were walking on private land and it could have been locked off forever," she said.
The land will be managed by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department now and remain open to the public. It is home to elk, mountain goats, mule deer, big horn sheep, and other animals.
