One of Salem’s most beloved resources, Minto Brown Park, almost fell prey to the City of Salem’s efforts to fill holes in the budget.

In February, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the “stimulus package.” The package sent state and local governments scurrying to take advantage of any funds that might shore up lagging revenues.

One of the options the city explored was an offer from the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS) to purchase an Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program floodplain easement. The EWP allows the USDA NRCS to purchase EWP easements on any floodplain lands that have been impaired within the last 12 months or that have a history of repeated flooding.

While most of Minto Brown Park has not suffered severe damage from flooding, the areas that have been damaged appear to have made a majority of the park eligible for the easement purchase. To comply with the purchase agreement, the city would have had to establish a conservation easement on 592 acres of Minto Brown Park, two-thirds of the park, in exchange for over $1.5 million from the federal government.

What is the hitch? While conservation of natural areas is generally a laudable goal to Oregonians, granting the Minto Brown easement to the federal government would have meant eliminating most uses of the land, including farming and trails, in the easement area.

The other hitch is that originally the city council added the Minto Brown easement issue to the consent agenda as “routine,” meaning there would be no need for discussion or individual motions and no real opportunity for community input or comment.

It took the involvement of several concerned citizens and a public records request, spearheaded by Scott Bassett, to point out that what the city intended to do was out of alignment with both the Salem Comprehensive Park System Master Plan and the Riverfront-Downtown Urban Renewal Plan.

Allowing the easement would contradict directives from the pre-existing plans permitting both organic farming and construction of a bridge spanning the Willamette Slough from the south end of Riverfront Park to Minto Island.

Bassett's and others’ efforts slowed down the process to take a more meaningful look at the easement proposal, including “going through public outreach,” to find whether the money from the feds is really worth what the city would be giving up.

“The city manager has been great to work with once she understood the impacts (of the easement agreement),” Bassett said.

City officials already reduced the amount of land that will be included in the easement to 198.5 acres, land that actually is more vulnerable to flooding and erosion, and a public hearing was held July 27.

The Salem City Council takes final action on this issue August 10.

“I’m hopeful the City has come up with a way to protect vulnerable land while using the windfall (of federal dollars) to encourage sustainable farming practices on the usable land,” Bassett said.