SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Landowner Bobby Smith says the state is paying too much for acreage in Rockbridge County that in his view is "unusable."

Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

RAPPS MILL -- Short Hills, a 10-mile stretch of steep, boulder-capped mountain in Rockbridge County where bears roam, is as inaccessible to most Virginians as any snowy Tibetan peak. But a plan now in the works would put the mountaintop into state hands, giving the public -- and hunters -- sudden access to thousands of rugged acres.

According to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries plan, more than 4,200 acres of the narrow mountain, visible on the west side of Interstate 81, will be turned into a wildlife management area where hunters can pursue bear, deer and other wild game.

The cost of the land is $6 million, but the state is working to get federal money to cover up to 75 percent of the expense.

"We're going as fast and as hard as we can on the project," said Rick Bush of the game department's wildlife division. "We've done all the footwork and homework on it we can. I think the citizens are going to be well served."

But the plan for Short Hills does not sit well with everyone. Bobby Smith, who owns nearly 440 acres on the mountainside, said $6 million is far too much to pay for land almost too crooked to stand on -- especially in tough economic times.

"I'll be the first to tell you the mountain is beautiful, but I'll also be the first to tell you the game department should not buy it," Smith said. "How do you justify spending $6 million when the land is unusable? Where's the conservation value if you can't use it?"

Smith added that some of the roughly 60 private landowners along the lower slopes of Short Hills already have a problem with trespassing hunters, and creating a wildlife management area in the middle of their properties would exacerbate the problem because bear hunters' hound dogs would stray from the state land, which is only a couple of hundred yards wide in areas.

"If you turn your dogs loose on it, in three minutes they can be on private property," said Rockbridge resident Robert Faulkner, who belongs to a hunting club that has leased land on the mountain. "It's not like they're in the national forest, where you can turn a hound loose and they can run for an hour."

Like Smith, Faulkner said he has reservations about the price tag on the project, but acknowledged that, as a hunter who will no longer have to pay a lease to hunt on the property, "overall I'm going to benefit."

The plan to create the wildlife management area is nearly two years in the making and involves a real estate deal with several players.

The Short Hills Land Co. bought the property in 2006, paying $4.8 million for it, according to land records filed in Rockbridge County Circuit Court. In July, the private company, based in Rustburg, put the property under a conservation easement, earning state and federal tax breaks in exchange for putting the property off-limits to development.

Days later, the company sold nearly half the land, 2,115 acres, to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a state agency, for $3 million, according to those involved in the deal.

(Selling land to the state after putting it under a conservation easement is known in the conservation community as a "bargain sale" and is a common practice.)

The other parcel, 2,117 acres, was sold to the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia, a Norge-based nonprofit that borrowed $3 million to pay for it, according to Executive Director Jenny West.

The next step of the plan calls for the outdoors foundation to give its half to another state agency, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which oversees the game department. The conservation department would also pay $3 million for the half currently owned by the wildlife foundation, West said. Altogether, then, the state would spend $6 million on the property.

However, the state is applying for federal reimbursement of up to 75 percent, or $4.5 million. The state is seeking the money under the provisions of the 1937 Pittman-Robertson Act, which set up a system that takes money from federal taxes on ammunition and firearms purchases and funnels it back to the states specifically to spend on preserving wildlife habitat. The money each state gets depends on its size and how many licensed hunters it has.

Bush, of the game department, said an appraisal of the Short Hills land is now under way, and the federal government will look it over before cutting the state a check: "All they need now is to determine that we're paying the right price."

The price is what Smith takes issue with. Land under conservation easement typically drops in value since it is no longer available for development, but in this case the state is spending more to buy it than the Short Hills Land Co. did.

West, though, said the mountain is worth every penny. It will join the state's 36 other Wildlife Management Areas, and according to West, a hunter, it offers plenty of game to hunters willing to tackle the challenging terrain.

"There's value in that property -- a lot of bear, deer, turkey, grouse," she said. "It was a priority acquisition."

Bush said that, if all goes well with the appraisal and the anticipated federal reimbursement, Short Hills could be a wildlife management area by early next year. "We're looking forward to bringing this into game department ownership to bring it to the public," he said. "Certainly by next hunting season."