Mt Hood Land Trade
Land Trade Background
The Mount Hood Land Trade (aka the Government Camp-Cooper Spur Land Exchange) is Thrive’s longest running project. It started nearly twenty years ago back when our organization had just barely formed under the banner Hood River Valley Residents Committee (HRVRC). Mt. Hood Meadows LLC had tried to locate a giant destination resort with a shopping mall, a golf course, restaurants and hundreds of condos just outside the Parkdale backdoor of our founder Kate McCarthy. The controversial proposal galvanized her, our young organization, conservation groups and the local community in opposition.
From this rancorous beginning, a grand solution emerged. Through citizen action, hard work and collaboration between Thrive, Mt. Hood Meadows, Hood River and Clackamas counties, Oregon’s congressional delegation, and a myriad of conservation groups including the 13 member groups of Cooper Spur Wild and Free, the parties crafted an innovative solution dubbed the “Clean Sweep”, a land exchange that would permanently protect the north side of Mount Hood. Here is a detailed history of the twists and turns of the deal.
The deal was codified by an Act of Congress in 2009. Mt. Hood Meadows would give up its 770 acres on the north side of the mountain in exchange for 120 acres of developable land in Government Camp owned by the US Forest Service. The trade would also give Wilderness designation to thousands of pristine backcountry acres around the historic Tilly Jane trail and protect Hood River’s drinking water in the Crystal Springs Watershed.
Current Land Trade Status
Unfortunately, the 2009 Act was not the end of the story. Completing the trade between the Forest Service and Mt. Hood Meadows has been frustratingly slow—twelve years and counting —and has reached a critical juncture that threatens the purpose of the deal crafted with such effort.
The Forest Service and Mt. Hood Meadows recently unveiled new plans for the trade and they are far from the “Clean Sweep” envisioned by Oregon’s congressional delegation and the public. You can read all about it in a piece in The Oregonian. Instead of trading all their 764-acre holding near Cooper Spur, Mt. Hood Meadows deal with USFS now allows them to keep 160 acres for future development at Cooper Spur as well as obtain 67 acres of highly valuable land at Government Camp. To enable this sweetheart deal, USFS relied on appraisals that grossly underestimate the value of the public’s land at Government Camp. Their Alabama-based appraiser valued lots in the heart of Govy at just $26,000 each when lots are currently selling for $250,000 and up.
By bypassing the “Clean Sweep” and instead keeping substantial holdings at Cooper Spur, this deal will allow Mt. Hood Meadows to take another run at destination resort development, an outcome that would undermine the very purpose of the land trade and not provide full value to the American public for the land it owns at Government Camp.
- 1,700 acres of new Wilderness in the Tilly Jane-Cloud Cap Historic District
- Special protections for 2,000 acres in Crystal Springs Watershed – the drinking water supply for 25% of Hood River homes
- A win-win solution that ends a 40-year fight over Mt. Hood Meadows’ plans to develop a destination resort at Cooper Spur.