An excellent series in the Seattle Times last fall explored the growing ranks of speculators who make millions of dollars by buying up land near national parks, forests and wilderness areas, then arranging swaps or buyouts from federal agencies - often by threatening to develop, mine or log the land.

"It’s possible to make more money threatening to dig a mine, log a forest or build a subdivision in the wilderness than in actually doing those things," wrote the Seattle Times in one of the articles. The Times gave examples to back up this thesis: Real-estate broker Tom Chapman traded 240 acres within the West Elk Wilderness for 104 acres of public land outside Telluride. The government set the value of both parcels of land at $640,000. Within a year and a half, Chapman sold the Telluride land for a cool $4.2 million - a 650 percent profit. Another speculator wanted 580 acres in the Teton range. He bought other land that he knew the U.S. Forest Service wanted and is threatening to develop it unless the government swaps him for the land he really desires. Is all of this sounding the least bit familiar?

John Crites, president of Allegheny Wood Products, bought 3,000 acres of the Blackwater Canyon, adjacent to Blackwater Falls State Park. Crites’ property includes Lindy Point, a scenic overlook featured in state tourism advertisements. Crites is logging the land and refusing to deny rumors that he plans to build condominiums along the canyon rim. Surveyor stakes, possibly marking condominium lots, have been planted. A deal, announced with much fanfare last year, swapping portions of the canyon land for other forest land has stalled, and some say Crites has pulled out, dissatisfied with the government’s appraisal of his land. In a letter to Gov. Cecil Underwood and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Crites said his appraisal and the government's were "millions of dollars apart." How could that be, unless Crites is trying to soak the government? He paid $5 million for the entire 3,000 acres, making the 675 acres under negotiation for the swap worth, at most, $1.1 million. (Much of the land offered in the swap includes steep slopes that would be more difficult and expensive to log.) If Crites and the government are really millions of dollars apart, he must want more than $3 million for this land - or three-fifths of what he paid for the entire 3,000 acres. It sounds like Crites won’t be satisfied with less than a 200 percent profit off the taxpayers. That’s deplorable.

Edward Maguire, former state director and national vice president of the Nature Conservancy, wondered in a column published in the Sunday Gazette-Mail whether Crites is playing environmentalists like a fiddle -- threatening one of the state’s crown jewels in order to get a huge payoff from the government. In other parts of the country, they’re calling this "greenmail." Is that what Crites is up to? It certainly looks that way. I hate to see a developer profiteering at public expense, although protecting the Blackwater Canyon is certainly worth a significant investment. Unfortunately, the greed of a public utility company -- Allegheny Power, which refused a substantial $3.5 million offer from a conservation group that planned to sell the canyon to the U.S. Forest Service as funds became available -- brought us to this juncture. Allegheny Power accepted an offer of $4.85 million from another company, which turned around and sold it to Crites’ company for $5 million. Public utilities are supposed to consider public interest when selling assets.

Unfortunately, the state Supreme Court bought the corporate fiction that Allegheny Power is not itself a public utility but rather a public utility holding company.

So what to do? There are only a few options: Give in to Crites’ greenmail and give him a generous portion of public land in exchange for the Blackwater Canyon property. If the government goes this route, it should go for the entire property, rather than the difficult-to-log swatches of land proposed by Crites. I’ve heard Crites is committed to keeping Lindy Point for his family, but any deal that doesn’t include Lindy Point is totally unacceptable. Let Crites do what he will with the canyon. This also is unacceptable. Blackwater Canyon is one of the most beautiful areas in a very beautiful state. It is a popular tourist destination (or at least it was until the sound of chain saws invaded and most of Canyon Loop Road was made impassable by logging trucks). Allowing condos to line the rim of the canyon would be a tragedy. The state could exercise its power of eminent domain, pay Crites a reasonable amount for the land and make it part of Blackwater Falls State Park. This is a good option, although it’s hard to imagine Gov. Underwood leading on this issue. Congress could make the land part of the Monongahela National Forest, again paying Crites a reasonable price. Sen. Rockefeller, who has been attempting unsuccessfully to work with Crites, would have to take a tougher stand, as would the state’s other members of Congress. But this is at least a possibility.

There has been very vocal, committed opposition to Crites’ plans for Blackwater. For either of the last two options to succeed, that opposition must become more vocal and more widespread. Enough public pressure on congressional and state representatives might yet save Blackwater without granting John Crites an unconscionable and undeserved amount of profit.

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