EASI completed an eco-asset valuation for 1700 acres adjacent to Tenino, Washington in that state’s Thurston County.
Eco-Assets totaling $44 million gross value were identified for three asset types — wetlands, Mazama pocket gopher and Oregon white oak.
These values set the stage for a formal land appraisal undertaken by Kidder Mathews drawing on staff in Los Angeles and Sacramento, CA. The Kidder team determined that mitigation banking would define highest and best use for the property. Kidder further determined a $15 million conservation value based on a 17% discount rate and a 30-year time line for mitigation credit sales. This was over and above two previous, conventional appraisals which set ranching, timber extraction and housing development as highest and best use and assigned a $9 million value to the property. Once again, ecological assets added significantly to the final land valuation.
The landowner is currently negotiating sale of the property to the Conservation Fund.