Richard Twight , November 9, 2013

Robert Stockton conducted this interview on November 9th, 2013, with Richard Twight in the Foothills Learning Center in Boise, Idaho as part of the 20th anniversary of the Hulls Gulch preservation project. Twight, who served as the director of finance for the Wetlands Coalition, offers his memories of the Hulls Gulch preservation efforts of the Wetland Coalition. The Hulls Gulch Preservation project is a conservation initiative aimed at protecting and restoring the natural ecosystem of Hulls Gulch, located two miles north of downtown Boise, while also providing recreational opportunities. He discusses some of the project’s early concerns, such as developers wanting to bulldoze the wetlands at the bottom of Hull Gulch to turn into housing. Given his experience in real estate, he believed the only way to successfully preserve the area was to purchase the land that the United Water Company (developers) owned. Twight explains that he drafted two land trusts to get the funding needed. The main components of these land trusts were that if their goal was not reached people would receive their money back and that the usage of the money was available to the public.