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HomeNewsArchivesTRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND BUYS ACREAGE AT MAHO

TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND BUYS ACREAGE AT MAHO

April 20, 2004 – The Trust for Public Land recently bought three acres of land at Maho Bay and 1/11 interest in another, larger parcel, John Garrison, trust project manager, said on Tuesday. The land lies within in the V.I. National Park.
"We're committed in helping the park service preserve as much of Maho Bay as we can," Garrison said.
Rafe Boulon, the park's chief of resource management, said the purchase does that: "It provides additional protection for coastal and marine wetlands in that area."
Garrison said it could take months or even a year for an actual transfer to occur. "There are deed and legal issues," he explained.
The trust paid $2.75 million in January for the parcel, which is across from the beach where the North Shore Road bends to the east. A trailer now sits on the property, but Garrison said he expects that when the land is conveyed to the park, the trailer and the tenant will go.
Boulon said a cistern on the grounds will remain, although the park has not yet decided what it will do with the property.
Garrison said the property was purchased from Caroline Ortiz, a granddaughter of Harvey Monroe Marsh.
Marsh left the remaining, undivided 370 acres of his estate at Maho Bay to his heirs. That property runs along the shore and uphill to the backside of Mamey Peak. The trust bought a 1/11 interest in it last December from a Marsh grandson, Joseph Adler. Garrison declined to disclose the price.
The park already owned 3/11 interest in the 370 acres, so the additional purchase brought the area under protection to 4/11.
The trust is trying to work with the people who own the other 7/11 interest, "but we are not in serious negotiation," Garrison said.
Garrison, who formerly served as president of the Friends of V.I. National Park, doesn't think development will happen anytime soon, since the property would have to be divided between the remaining Marsh heirs and the park. It would take a court intervention to decide who gets what, he said.
The trust, according to Garrison, is just starting discussions with Geri-Geri Corp., which owns the 14 acres of Maho Bay Camps. The area is the next bay over from the trust's recent acquisitions.
Maho Bay Camps' 36-year lease runs out in 2012.
The Trust for Public Land purchases property, then it turns it over to a public body to preserve it.

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