The potential sale of four pieces of land now overseen by the Henry County Conservation Board drew no shortage of opinions, and little consensus, during a public forum held Tuesday evening at the board's regular monthly meeting.

A crowd of about 40 gathered to discuss the sale, and weigh in on a philosophical shift that could define the department's activities for decades to come.

Board members are divided over selling the properties, which total 118 acres of land scattered across rural Henry County. Funds raised by the sale could be used to purchase 90 acres of land in the Oakland Mills area, which the department is in negotiations for.

Selling the four properties may not earn enough to cover the entire cost of the purchase. But board members saw no way to finance the purchase without making the sale as well.

Few argued that the board should not pursue acquiring more land in the Oakland Mills area; but opinions diverged on the question of whether to sell the existing county land in exchange.

"To me, it's unfair to the rest of the county, to expect the rest of the county to just flock here to Oakland Mills," said board member Martin Frazer. "Rather than concentrate on moving on to a new piece of property, why don't we develop the property that we already have?"

Malcolm Mason, of Winfield, agreed. "You're only servicing a third of the county to put it all down here," he said. "Now, I'm not going to drive 30 miles to get down here when I can go to Wapello or someplace else. So you're just closing off all except the bottom third of Henry County."

But Gary Ibbotson, a leader with Boy Scout Troop 24, said expanded facilities at Oakland Mills could offer more and better opportunities. "We have to go out of the county to find a place to camp," he said. "And we would love to be able to stay in Henry County."

Other speakers debated the financial wisdom of the move, the costs of abandoning what is largely unspoiled land and a potential slippery slope that could lead to selling off still more outlying county land.

The Henry County Conservation Department controls nearly 1,000 acres of land throughout the county, of which 135 acres are located at Oakland Mills. Much of the land is concentrated in southwest Henry County, with the exception of Stephenson Park near Lowell.

Steve Wilson, who lives southwest of Mt. Pleasant, warned that the properties' value as wildlife habitats could not be easily replaced. "If you leave Mud Creek, and go buy some place that's been a cow pasture for a hundred years and think that you're going to transform that cow pasture into Mud Creek...if you've got a 250 to 500-year plan, you can do that," he said. "But these things that you're losing are not things that you can just pick up."

Wilson said he would rather see the board acquiring more wetlands and old-growth areas; but board member Kent White said they had to keep their finances in mind.

"We have to talk about money," said White. "Unfortunately, that's part of what our life is. In a perfect world, yes, it'd be lovely to have any nice piece of property that we can take possession of that we can preserve it. But unfortunately, we don't have that luxury. We've never had that luxury. But we have to pick and choose to serve the majority of the people."

For more, see our Aug. 13 print edition.