The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will hold a public hearing in North Bend on July 28 to receive public comments about the proposed transfer of several thousand acres to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Natural Resources Conservation Area (NRCA).

The hearing will be held 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 28, at the North Bend Railroad Depot, 205 McClellan St., North Bend.

Designated as an NRCA last year by Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark, the Middle Fork Snoqualmie includes a river valley with important fish and wildlife habitat. The area will eventually conserve more than 10,000 acres of forestland between Mount Si NRCA and federal forests in the I-90 corridor.

Only Common School Trust property is eligible for transfer under the 2009-2011 Trust Land Transfer Program. Approximately 5,777 acres of the 9,001 acres proposed for transfer to the NRCA are currently Common School Trust land, which produces revenue for public school construction. About 3,224 acres within the NRCA are held by other state land trusts.

DNR proposes to exchange those parcels with land of equal value that is held by the Common School Trust elsewhere. If the exchange is approved, the state parcels within the NRCA will consist only of Common School Trust land, making them eligible for transfer to the NRCA.

The July 28 hearing will also accept public comments about a separate inter-trust exchange to make possible a future lease to King County of about 30 acres of trust land along Issaquah Hobart Rd SE. The County could use that land for the public uses of fish and wildlife habitat, recreation or open space.

Written comments about the exchange are welcomed and must be received by 4 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 4. Send comments to: DNR, Asset & Property Management Division, ATTN: TRUST LAND TRANSFER, Inter-Trust Exchanges No. 86-84803 (Middle Fork Snoqualmie) or 86-085762 (Issaquah Creek), MS Box 47014, Olympia, WA 98504-7014, or e-mail to: Trust_Land_Transfer@dnr.wa.gov.