Oaky Woods

I am beginning to wonder just how much of Gov. Sonny Perdue's legacy will center on Oaky Woods, the Houston County wildlife preserve the state leases as a wildlife management area.

I'm also beginning to wonder: If the state has been leasing this thing since the 1960's, could the state simply have bought it cheaper than the total rent taxpayers have doled out?

Any way, this is required reading if you haven't seen it yet.

And just to recap the saga so far:

Lumber company wants to sell popular hunting area and wildlife preserve Oaky Woods -> state declines to buy, governor says it doesn't have the money -> governor buys some land nearby -> developers buy Oaky Woods and announce plans to build massive town there -> land values (including the governor's) shoot up -> governor gets a retroactive tax break on land dealings -> developers say the state can still buy Oaky Woods, but it'll cost taxpayers about 9 times what the developers paid for it -> developer gets caught hunting over bait -> developer threatens DNR agent that, if he gets a ticket, the price the state pays to keep Oaky Woods as a wildlife management area might go up -> developer gets ticket -> the price the state pays to keep Oaky Woods as a wildlife management area goes up.