Specifically, the rule was this: if the government failed to buy property within three years of a sale offer from an owner, the property would revert to less-restrictive General Management Area status, which allows a greater variety of agricultural and rural recreational development on smaller parcels.

In November the U.S. Forest Service sent out the obligatory fair warning notices to 725 property owners that the law was expiring. Some 182 of those landowners apparently opened the mailing, because that's how many made their sale offer before March 30.

As a result, the Forest Service now has three years to buy their combined 6,700 acres of privately owned land or allow for a broader tnage of development. The Forest Service is now preparing a draft analysis of the land the it hopes to have ready for public review in 90 days. After that, the agency will begin writing offers for those properties it considers to be at the greatest risk for development.