STATE GOVERNMENTS TAKE THE LEAD IN LAND CONSERVATION

Everglades National Park


STATE GOVERNMENTS TAKE THE LEAD IN LAND CONSERVATION

By Steve Wright

The tourists and retirees came to Florida in droves, lured by sunny days and year round warmth. Then the young families, military folks, immigrants and frozen northerners came by the millions to stake their Sunshine State claim in the prime of their lives.

The incredible population growth was fueled by people creating new lives in an enchanting land of sparkling waters from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, hundreds of miles of pristine sandy coastline, thick citrus groves and dense forest, plus a unique to the world eco system -- a river of grass and gators known as the Everglades.

But when tens of millions of people chose to live in a wild peninsula of a state, the ravenous demand for waterfront condos and inland suburban dwellings creates an inevitable clash between the people and the very environment that enticed them to leave the factories and snow of the north for Florida's natural charms.

To provide a balance, the state created Florida Forever -- a fund that can be used for buying sensitive lands for conservation.

Florida Forever is one of the best-know efforts among states that are putting their land preservation money where their mouth is -- even in tough economic times that are creating billion dollar budget deficits.

Around the nation, state governments are realizing that quality of life requires a delicate balance between land development and land conservation.

And just like they make master plans and budgets for roads, transit, commerce and housing, they are committing large sums of public dollars and government resources toward protecting unique and pristine lands.

The Florida Forever program was recently extended through the year 2020, to provide $300 million per your for land conservation.

"Florida continues to demonstrate a commitment to preserving the natural, cultural and historical resources that make the state so unique," said Michael W. Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. "The state Legislature recently extended our most important land conservation tool, the Florida Forever program, another 10 years. Through this program, the
largest in the nation, and its predecessor, more than two million acres of Florida's vital lands, valuable waterways and springs have been preserved, and habitat has been protected for countless numbers of Florida’s natural plant and animal species."

On the other end of the Atlantic coast, Land for Maine's Future (LMF) is a state agency that funds success stories including:

• The Downeast Lakes Forestry Partnership, a project initiated by sporting camp owners, guides and craftsmen who sought to protect the land base that provided for their livelihood. Centered in and around Grand Lake Stream in Downeast Maine, this effort has now conserved more than 342,000 acres. The lakes and rivers that form the core assets of the region are now largely conserved, but lands remain in the traditional development centers for activity that supports the traditional economies of the region.

• The Maine Huts and Trail system, which will eventually connect two of Maine’s premier tourism centers: the Moosehead Lake area to Bethel in western Maine. The trail system not only adds a recreation asset, but also is expected to generate substantial economic activity such as second homes and resorts.

• The Jordan Farm project in Cape Elizabeth is an example of land conservation co-existing with and complementing residential development. The town and landowner wanted to maintain one of the area’s last working farms but the landowner could not afford to donate the property. LMF and federal funding along with a generous bargain sale of a conservation easement led to the protection of the farm.

• The Fuller Farm, a mix of hayfields, grasslands and woodlands that slope down to the Nonesuch River in Scarborough Maine. The 180-acre tract protects everything from moose to mink to meadowlarks. It also hosts skiing and a snowmobile trail. It almost became a subdivision of two-acre house lots, but the owners sold it for less than appraised value to the Scarborough Land Conservation Trust, which was supported by a loan from the Trust for Public land and funding from LMF.
“Outright donations of conservation lands continue to be a significant part of Maine’s conservation scene and I understand this to be true in many other states,” said Tim Glidden, director of Land for Maine’s Future. “I believe the principal motivation continues to be altruistic. However, it is also true that we are witnessing a massive, generational transfer of accumulated wealth in this country and many landowners see both the need for permanent conservation of our natural heritage and the opportunity for significant tax benefits. Recent changes in tax law have been particularly important for the donation of permanent conservation easements.”

The state of Maryland can boast that it is entering its fifth decade of dedicating resources to land conservation. Various state agencies and initiatives have protected nearly 400,000 acres.

Shaun Fenlon, Director of Land Acquisition and Planning for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, estimates that he has participated in at least 200 conservation easement deals where a landowner is paid to permanently protect his property from harmful development.

“There are a lot of benefits from land conservation,” he said. “What I’ve said to some people is to imagine what Maryland, including the Chesapeake Bay, would look like in the year 2050 if we hadn’t ever done any land conservation starting in the late 1960s and hadn’t continued doing it in a focused way over the next 42 years.

Fenlon said every state in the union should make land conservation a priority because of benefits including:

o Water quality – The green infrastructure and buffers around streams protect ground water and surface water. Most of the land in Maryland, of course, is in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

o Air quality – Trees and other vegetation produce oxygen and sequester carbon, which absorbs harmful carbon dioxide. They can also help to reduce the urban heat effect from so much pavement and reduce the temperature of small streams by providing shade.

o Enjoyment of nature and recreational benefits – There is simply a restorative value of being in nature that most people have experienced and some people ascribe a value to just knowing that the nature is there. But the less esoteric benefits of recreation, such as active recreation for sports and less organized sports, like kayaking and orienteering, depend upon large open spaces.

o Smart Growth -- Land conservation, if property targeted, supports Smart Growth by discouraging sprawl, which is more expensive than planned growth in targeted areas and the revitalization of established neighborhoods.

o Maintaining locally produced food and fiber – Some have argued that it is an element of national security to have locally produced food and fiber, so that we are not subject to price spikes or even outright holding back of needed agricultural items for our citizens. Aside from national security, there is a growing interest among people for getting their food from local producers, something hard to do if there were no local farmers.

o Moral imperative – Some argue that a benefit of land conservation is that we are simply doing the right thing. Thus, whether or not there is a quantitative benefit, we are doing the right thing in protecting our natural landscapes for future generations and for the flora and fauna that inhabit it.

On Hawaii’s Big Island, the 24,000-acre Kealakekua Heritage Ranch in Kona was once slated for intense development with 500 houses.

But working with state officials, a land trust and an architect-planner with a vision for sustainability, the ranch-owning Pace Family was able to create a landmark conservation deal that will protect almost all the pristine property.

“The Pace family had a different vision,” said Greg Hendrickson, ranch manager and an attorney with expertise in conservation easements. “The family is committed to protecting this land from the kind of development planned for it
prior to their purchase, and is instead interested in maintaining this ranch as working lands.”

The result will be development of 200 to 250 private inhabitation compounds in average of 4-acre enclosures, with the balance of a homeowner’s 20-acre deeded lot being leased to the public for a recreational and agricultural common area, according to architect Clark Stevens.

“The acquisition of this conservation easement on Kealakekua Heritage Ranch will be the largest single conservation easement transaction in the State of Hawaii's history, involving nearly 9,000 acres, $4 million in federal Forest Legacy funding, and over $12 million value in donation, for a total expected value of over $16 million.” said Laura H. Thielen, chairperson of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, a state agency.

Stevens, the designer of the Kealakekua Heritage Ranch-Hokukano Preserve said the final project will have 96 percent protected open space for orchards, pasture, and native forest -- including all of the areas above 4,000 feet in elevation, “which is the critical line for survival of native bird species as it is above the avian malaria elevation.”

The one-of-a-kind conservation development also will feature hundreds of miles of trails remaining from historic logging and current grazing in the forest areas.
“The project is planned to be off the grid, with rebates off of the price of the lot going to those who employ alternative energy and certified sustainable construction materials and techniques in a point system similar to the LEED approach,” said Stevens, stressing that even the fraction of developed lands will be very Green and sustainable.

Thielen praised the Pace family and landowners who are beginning to understand that there are land use options that will allow them to keep their land and continue producing income from it -- as well as gain long-term tax benefits and reduced property taxes.

“In the short-term, the successful completion of a conservation easement for Kealakekua Heritage Ranch strengthens the state’s credibility to complete large conservation easement transactions,” said Thielen. “Conservation easements support our economy, preserve ecosystems products communities need to flourish, and protect our cultural values for future generations. Kealakekua Heritage Ranch is a Hawaiian example of finding common ground between conservation and working lands.”

Jean Murphy, past president of the Hawaii Association of Realtors and still an active Realtor with Clark Realty on the Big Island, has preached the value of open space, preserved view corridors and conserved natural areas throughout her 46 years of working on property development in the real estate profession.

“The vistas (in Hawaii) are so beautiful and when you look down and see those hills are not changed, that the land is kept natural in perpetuity -- it gives you a good feeling,” she said.

In the mid-1980s, Murphy was working with a developer during a tough real estate market.

“The developer wanted to put in more condos, but I suggested a golf course – which substitutes for open space some time,” she recalled. “I mailed 10,000 people and asked them whether they would want to be next to more condos or in a residential community with minimum 15,000-square-foot lots with unspoiled vistas. Ninety eight percent said they preferred to buy a house with views from on and above a golf course.”

Murphy’s land conservation poll received an amazing four percent return rate and helped shape a future of preservation at Kona’s Keauhou Resort.

“The people’s vote was followed and 135 lots sold out in three years. The home values have remained high; we recently had a resale for $1.8 million,” she said.

Murphy also worked to preserve ocean views on the Kona-Kohala Coast on the western side of the Big Island.

A stalled development had built a seven story concrete building right on the water’s edge. Murphy came on board in 1990 to help a developer to revive the project.

“I told them to tear down that seven story concrete monstrosity,” she said.

The result was the Resort at Hualalai, a world-renown low-rise development of homes, villas, championship golf courses, spa and the five diamond Four Seasons Resort Hualalai.

Murphy also has worked on master plans for developments of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, a trust that owns 1/8th of the land in Hawaii. Created from the will of Bishop -- the last royal princess of the Hawaiian Islands -- the multibillion dollar trust funds the Kamehameha Schools, a private, co-educational college preparatory institution with several campuses across the islands.

Murphy is well-aware of the delicate balance between developing land to fund the historic schools founded in 1887 and the need to preserve archaeological sites on the ancestral lands.

The Keauhou Resort’s charter and a cultural advisory committee ensure that future development is culturally correct and restoration of historic sites is a priority. Two major historical sites have been restored on the grounds: the Lekeleke Burial Grounds and the birthplace of Kamehameha III, Hawaii's longest-reigning monarch.

Back in Florida, the state hopes to soon close an historic deal that would purchase 187,000 acres (three times the size of the city of Orlando) of sugar cane growing land from U.S. Sugar.

The $1.75 billion purchase would be made by the state’s South Florida Water Management District, and used to support the federal government’s $10-billion Everglades restoration project. The largest conservation purchase in state history would use some of the land for a series of reservoirs and pollution filtering areas that would restore the flow of water between Lake Okeechobee and Everglades National Park.

"The possible acquisition of the land and assets of United States Sugar has
huge potential for the restoration of America's Everglades,” said Sole. “If we do acquire these tracts of land, it would give us the chance to store and clean water on a scale we never thought possible, allowing us to better manage water
critical for the restoration of our treasured River of Grass, as well as
protect our coastal estuaries.”

U.S. Sugar’s 77-year-old cane operation would shut down in about six years.
But more than 100,000 acres of state-purchased lands could be turned back to farming.

Keyna Cory, a principal in Public Affairs Consultants and chief lobbyist for Associated Industries of Florida, said many people forget the strong economic benefits of conservation.

“Florida Forever isn’t just about preserving land but also is about better land management and addressing problems of invasive plant species that can ruin land. It is about protecting land, wildlife and access to waterways,” she said. “Without access to waterways and things like boat ramps, Florida’s marine industry is adversely affected. Florida Forever has obvious benefits when it comes to preserving the environment, but it also makes it economically feasible to live and work in Florida.”

Cory said Florida Forever has been instrumental in protecting imperiled species such as gopher tortoise and panthers.

“(The program) helps to lower the cost per home for developers by moving imperiled species to protected areas and creating sites for alternative water supply programs,” she explained. “It’s also about finding lands for alternative water supply programs – not huge, ugly desalinization plants, but things like reservoirs.”

Cory said no one in the business community wants to see a totally blacktopped Florida.

“The Florida Forever project is a unique situation because it’s the first time businesses and conservationists worked arm and arm to work together on a bill like this,” she said.

Wright frequently writes about Smart Growth and sustainable communities. He and his wife live in a restored historic home in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana. Contact him at: stevewright64@yahoo.com