Butch Conlan has done a tremendous amount of research on cabin values and appraisals. Here are summaries of his work and links to the original research papers. The opinions put forth are those of the author and not necessarily those of your Echo Lake Board.

(1) The "Qualms..." research documents the early success of the ELA in challenging the very first USFS appraisal. The ELA searched for and found the best lawyer for the job. And the ELA won (not once but three times). This work recounts these events of 1969 through 1972.

2) "APPENDIX 1" research introduces the reader to the USDA's own research wing -- the ERS (Economic Research Service) which is now known as the NASS (National Agricultural Research Service). These research scientists produce the very important "Agricultural Census." As part of this census, the USDA determines the value of agricultural land (raw land) throughout the US -- county by county. The USFS has decided to ignore this valuable, accurate and FREE resource. This research of mine puts forward raw land values for every county (58) in California from 1920 to the present. By taking a look at this document, the reader can ascertain the true value of the land associated with the cabin permit. The reader can then see how extremely and wrongly over-valued the USFS has made of the raw land in the Echo Lake's region of the Eldorado National Forest -- an undeveloped agricultural property.

(3) "Land Value" research documents, in detail, the over-valuation of the properties at Echo Lakes. It demonstrates that the USFS used vacant lot (site) values in suburban developments in forming a false and incorrect excessively high appraisal of land values at Echo Lakes. This mistake produces over-evaluations of raw land of $250,000 to $540,000 per acre in access of typical raw land values. Raw land in Eldorado County, at the time of the year 2000 USFS appraisal of Echo Lakes, had an average value of around $8,000 per acre.

(4) "The June Memorandum" research shows two things: (1) Due to a hidden memorandum, land values at Echo Lakes and elsewhere in Region 5 and Region 4 were purposefully over-valued. This is a deceptive appraisal practice and completely unacceptable to the Appraisal Institute as well as to the Appraisal Foundation -- federal organizations set up to monitor and train ethical and responsible real estate appraisers. (2) The law known as C.U.F.F.A. was not the law that was supposed to have been written. Some entity or person(s) unknown compromised what I refer to as the Nethercutt-Craig Bill.