Many went to get a last look, fearing that by their next trip an exclusive and private fishing lodge may have sprouted across from the Little Hole Day Use Area.
Jim Karpowitz made three trips to the Green in the past three months. He floated the seven miles of river from the dam down to Little Hole twice and then walked some of the 356 acres SITLA (School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration) had made available to the highest bidder.
"I wanted to decide how valuable this piece of land was to the state of Utah," said Karpowitz, who also happens to be director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
Karpowitz has floated the Green River several times, but these trips were different. He realized that a lodge would change what the river is all about.
"Each trip I became more and more impressed and realized this [land] absolutely had to stay in state ownership," he said. "If it meant finding partners and buying the land then we needed to do that. It is too bad it ever went up for auction, but keeping that river corridor intact became very important to me."
Concerned anglers and nature lovers had made their pleas to keep the land free of development and Karpowitz not only heard those pleas, he understood them.
During a trip to fish the Bow River in southern Alberta, all Karpowitz's guide could talk about "was how great the Green was." He had a similar experience floating the Green with his Colorado counterpart, who told him, "This is a real gem. We don't have anything like it."
Karpowitz sought partners to come forward to help the DWR make the highest bid to its ugly-stepsister agency, which, in all fairness, has the sole mandate to make as much money as possible on its land.
The Utah Reclamation and Mitigation Commission kicked in almost half of the final $1.625 million bid with $800,000. In what Karpowitz called a "no-strings-attached" contribution, Questar Exploration and Development provided the extra money the DWR lacked. Questar joined the party thanks to efforts by the Nature Conservancy.
"If it wasn't for those two partners that land would be in private ownership right now," Karpowitz said.
Seconds after the DWR's bid was acknowledged as the highest, Utah PTA representative Natalie Gordon charged to a Tribune reporter and blurted out that the schools had been "ripped off."
That doesn't sit well with Karpowitz.
"I really fail to see how they were shortchanged. SITLA got $400,000 more than the highest appraisal," he said. "More importantly, that land was preserved for every schoolchild in perpetuity."
Many others - myself included - agree. People are tired of watching special wild places turned into summer homes or lodges for the small percentage of the population that can afford them.
As I've said before, I'm all for supporting teachers and students financially, but I, like a lot of other people out there, firmly believe that wild places are at least equally important in the lives of youth.
brettp@sltrib.com
