A conservation easement along part of Squaw Creek could soon be brought to you, in part, by Wal-Mart.

The Deschutes Basin Land Trust, a conservation nonprofit in Bend, last week landed a $400,000 grant to help permanently protect 1,120 acres of privately owned land on Squaw Creek.

The grant is part of a new initiative Wal-Mart officials will announce today in Washington, D.C., called Acres for America.

The program is a partnership between Wal-Mart and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a national nonprofit dedicated to conserving wildlife habitat.

Wal-Mart has pledged, through the program, to permanently conserve at least 1 acre of wildlife habitat for every acre the company has currently developed – and every acre it plans to develop in the next 10 years.

That’s an estimated 138,000 acres, for which the company has pledged $35 million.

The retail giant is planning to build a Supercenter on the north side of Bend, at the intersection of Cooley Road and Highway 97. A Supercenter is like a typical Wal-Mart with a full grocery store attached.

The Squaw Creek project, called the Back to Home Waters Initiative, is the only project from Oregon to receive Acres for America funding.

Last week, Deschutes County Commissioners endorsed the easement – a contract intended to permanently restrict development on a ranch owned by Bob and Gayle Baker.

Brad Nye, conservation project manager for the land trust, told the commissioners their endorsement would help the organization secure grants to purchase the easement for a non-specified price.

Wal-Mart officials would not comment Monday for this article.

But other officials involved in the Squaw Creek project deny that the grant was awarded to appease Wal-Mart foes in Central Oregon.

Krystyna Wolniakowski, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation director for the northwest region, said the foundation – not Wal-Mart – solicited grant applications and decided which projects to fund.

”Wal-Mart has no say in any of our projects,” she said.

Wolniakowski said she helped select the Squaw Creek easement as one of five projects in the country to receive Wal-Mart’s funding, Wolniakowski said.

”And I had no idea, actually, that (Central Oregon) had anything to do with a Supercenter,” she said.

Nye, of the land trust, said he and other staff had no idea they were applying for Wal-Mart dollars when they submitted a grant application to the foundation.

He said the project is still in the early stages.

”I’m confident this (easement) will happen, but we’ve got a ways to go before we know for sure,” he said.

The land trust plans to purchase the development rights to the Baker’s ranch on Squaw Creek for an amount that is not-yet determined. The Bakers have indicated that they will donate some of the amount.

Nye said the land trust is pleased to have the $400,000 grant, although the organization is preparing to spend more time on public relations work than it usually does for this amount of money.

A group of residents opposed to the new Supercenter in Bend have organized a nonprofit called ”Our Community First.” The group has held protests and is circulating a petition to prevent development of the new store.

Wal-Mart has grown accustomed to opposition in recent years. The corporation has fought legal battles over discrimination and overtime pay. Community opposition squashed Wal-Mart’s plans to build stores in Chicago and New York City.

In January, the company launched a media campaign.

Michael Funke, one of the founders of Our Community First, said he suspects the Acres for America program is part of that campaign.

Funke said he expects the program will impress the occasional Wal-Mart opponent, but he doubts it will have any real impact on general opinion of the company.

”I think it’s nice of (Wal-Mart),” he said of the conservation program. ”And I would encourage them to maybe invest some more money in their workers.”

For the Acres for America project, Wal-Mart has pledged $35 million to protect 138,000 acres in the next decade. Five projects were selected to receive a total of $8.8 million this year.

Other projects are in Louisiana, Arizona, Arkansas and Maine. Grant amounts vary from $400,000 – for the easement by the land trust and a project by The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas – to $6 million, for a project by The Conservation Fund in Maine.

Lily Raff can be reached at 541-617-7836 or lraff@bendbulletin.com.