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This combination clear-cut, excavation and landside inspired an environmental movement in 2007. Purchased from the county at fire-sale prices by a local attorney and developer it was intended as a surface mine to provide fill dirt for the flood plain across the river. But the preliminary clear-cutting of timber on such a prominent hillside generated a public uproar which led to a heated discussion about landowner versus public rights. At one point the owners offered to sell the property back to the public at an inflated price but nobody could afford to buy it.
