Nine months after The Nature Conservancy announced plans to donate Wildhaven Preserve to the U.S. Forest Service, the parcel remains in the hands of the conservation organization following a series of delays.

The organization is saying that any transfer likely wouldn’t take place until the end of the year, at the earliest.

“We’re kind of in a holding pattern,” said Derek Johnson, director of protection and stewardship for the Oregon chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

Plans to get rid of the 160-acre private nature preserve located northeast of Sisters have been swirling for more than a year, according to Johnson. Last December, the organization told long-time caretakers Leslyn and Mark Grape they would have to leave the property in June due to its forthcoming transfer to the Forest Service. Two months after the deadline passed, however, the Grapes remain at the property on a month-to-month lease.

Johnson said several factors have delayed the transfer, including a long-dormant mineral right on the property and the challenge of finding a use for the 2,000-square-foot cabin that sits atop a bluff in the preserve. Despite that, Johnson expressed confidence that the transfer will eventually be completed.

The property that would become Wildhaven Preserve was originally purchased by environmentalists Gil and Vivian Staender in 1969. The property, best known for its iconic old-growth juniper trees, some of which are more than 1,000 years old, was turned over to The Nature Conservancy 13 years later.

Former Oregon governor Tom McCall, a former member of The Nature Conservancy’s board of directors and a friend of the Staenders, wrote a letter for the dedication of the property, where he pledged the property “always be managed in a manner (the Staenders) would approve.”

After being asked to leave Wildhaven, their home for 20 years, the Grapes expressed frustration with The Nature Conservancy. The couple said during the spring that the organization’s decision to give the land to the Forest Service went against the wishes of the Staenders, and represents a betrayal of its promise to safeguard the land in perpetuity.

Paul Dewey, executive director of Central Oregon LandWatch, echoed those concerns. On June 4, Dewey wrote a letter to the Forest Service, in which he expressed his fondness for the parcel and noted that the Forest Service’s management of the forest surrounding Wildhaven, as winter range for deer and elk, would be a poor fit for an area as unique and delicate as Wildhaven.

“It really feels like no-man’s land, like the Forest Service has lost control,” Dewey said Friday of the surrounding area.

Dewey added that he didn’t understand why The Nature Conservancy, which had affirmed its support for the property when it was dedicated, had shifted its approach so dramatically since then.

“Things aren’t adding up, and we want to get more information,” he said.

However, Johnson said The Nature Conservancy’s focus has evolved over the past four decades. He said the organization in recent years has prioritized working more holistically on issues like forest health and biodiversity, forcing it to be more careful about maintaining individual properties.

“The world just wasn’t the same place … 30 years ago, 40 years ago, when Wildhaven came into the fold,” Johnson said.

However, the transfer to the Forest Service was initially delayed by a residual third-party mineral right on the property. Johnson said the Forest Service has a blanket rule against accepting parcels with these types of claims, forcing The Nature Conservancy to get the residual mineral right removed. Johnson said the organization was ultimately able to track down the claim’s owner, and get it expunged earlier this summer.

He added that the organization needs to have a plan for the cabin sitting on the property before it can transfer the property, which has proven to be tough sledding. However, Johnson said that Sisters School District has expressed interest in the cabin.

With Central Oregon’s wildfire season in full swing, Johnson said the Forest Service currently has other priorities, and said it was likely that a transfer won’t be completed until 2019. Still, he reiterated his support for the Forest Service, saying he expects them to be a good steward for the land.

“We’re not in a hurry here,” he said. “The main thing is to do it right.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com