By Jimmt Roller

The San Juan County Council approved the sale of the 30-acre October Farms property. October Farms was part of the the 313-acre Zylstra lake property in the San Juan Valley that the county purchased at the end of last year. The property sold for $825,000 to a private buyer, which was agreed upon on March 8, 2016.

According to plans, the 30-acre parcel is the only portion to the 313-acre property that will be privately owned. The remaining land will be preserved for public use, and agricultural opportunities.

In a Nov. 30 San Juan County Council meeting, council members gave the Land Bank the go-ahead with their acquisition plan. In December 2015, the San Juan Preservation Trust and the San Juan County Land Bank reached an agreement to purchase the 313-acre Zylstra Lake property for $3 million with $500,000 committed to the project by the county land bank.

The sale of October Farms is in accordance with the original agreement made in December 2015. The agreement is to divide the property into three parcels between the San Juan County Land Bank, the preservation trust and a private buyer for the 30-acre October Farms farmstead.

According the the San Juan County Land Bank, under the partnership’s current vision, the 161-acre “Upper Lake” parcel, which includes the larger lake, would eventually be owned by the land bank and managed primarily for open space and recreation. While a management plan for this property would be subject to public process, uses could include walking trails, a place to launch small non-motorized boats, and San Juan Island’s only publicly-accessible swimming lake.

The 122-acre “Lower Lake” parcel, which includes the smaller lake, would be owned by the Preservation Trust and managed to provide agricultural opportunities, a public trail, and year-round stream flow in False Bay Creek for salmon and native cutthroat trout.

If successful, fish biologists confirm that fly fishing could one day be possible in San Juan Valley.