The purchase price of the forest land a local non-profit society plans to buy from a logging company is $400,000.
Earlier this month the Cottonwood Lake Preservation Society announced that its fundraising goal was $750,000 to buy 40 hectares at Cottonwood Lake. And it still is.
But that fundraising goal includes ancillary costs, the largest being a stewardship fund that society spokesperson Andrew McBurney estimates will amount to about $150,000. That will go to a nature organization that will eventually receive the land – an organization that does not want to be named yet.
“That cost is to steward the land in perpetuity,” McBurney said.
“By comparison, when the Regional District of Central Kootenay paid their $450,000 for their ring around the lake, it was land-only costs,” McBurney said. “They are going to have to maintain that land in perpetuity beyond the $45o,000. With us, we are paying $400,000 for the land and [$150,000 for] years of upkeep of that land, so we are front-loading the costs.”
McBurney said that when land is bequeathed to nature organizations for conservation purposes, such a stewardship fee, sometimes amounting to 30 per cent of the purchase price, is standard practice.
He said the reason the society announced the overall $750,000 fundraising goal but not the purchase price portion is because “people might think that after we hit $400,000 we are done.”
Other costs above the purchase price and the stewardship fee include $60,000 for legal and surveying and land transfer fees, and $75,000 to hire a national professional fundraising company.
Related:
• More land to be purchased from Cottonwood Lake logger
• RDCK to purchase portion of lands around Cottonwood Lake
• Cottonwood Lake group applauds RDCK purchase
• The logging plan no one wants to talk about
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