"No Trespassing" signs have begun to come down and "Wildlife Area" placards have gone up on 2,200 acres of a huge southern Asotin County spread WDFW began to purchase in early December.
A WDFW BLUE MOUNTAINS WILDLIFE AREA STAFFER TACKS UP AN ACCESS SIGN ON PART OF THE FORMER 4-0 RANCH OF ASOTIN COUNTY. (WDFW)
Steelheaders, take note -- the new public access also includes 2 miles along the Grande Ronde River upstream of Boggan's Oasis and just above Cottonwood Creek.
Formerly, the new state land was part of the 12,000-acre 4-O ranch, which was hailed as "truly a unique landscape" by WDFW's Eastside lands manager, Brian Trickel, in our story about the initial buy.
The plan is to purchase the rest of the ranch in multiple phases over the next decade for public recreation and fish and wildlife habitat, which it has actually been managed for for years.
State staffers swapped out signage in mid-January, and the agency posted a map of its newly purchased land on its Web site.
WDFW MAP OF THE NOW-OPEN AREAS (BLUE) OF THE FORMER 4-O RANCH. (WDFW)
