LAND TRUSTS PLAY VALUABLE ROLE IN CONSERVATION

LAND TRUSTS PLAY VALUABLE ROLE IN CONSERVATION

By Steve Wright

West Virginia’s New River Gorge, world renowned for its white water rafting and scenic views, is one of the most popular natural areas in all of Middle America.

Any government agency on earth would just about leap off a gorge’s cliffs to add thousands of acres of preserved land to a famed wild and wonderful river.
Last year, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources had a willing seller ready to part with 4,600 picture perfect acres overlooking the New River Gorge.

The seller wanted quick payment in one lump sum. But the state of West Virginia, though salivating over the chances to add the huge tract to its Beury Mountain Wildlife Management Area, didn’t have the financial resources to write one big check on the spot.

Enter The Nature Conservancy, (TNC) a leading conservation organization whose more than one million members have been responsible for protecting more than 15 million acres in the United States. The nonprofit land trust stepped in and purchased the largest preservation property acquired in West Virginia in more than two decades.

“The Nature Conservancy has the ability to step in, borrow funds internally to pick up the property, and then sell the property back to a government agency as funding becomes available,” said Rodney Bartgis, state director for the Nature Conservancy in West Virginia. “TNC gets reimbursed for the cost of the land and direct expenses like survey and appraisal.”

Such land-saving deals are taking place each day as more than 1,700 land trusts in America work with federal, state and local governments plus developers, investors, individual landowners and heirs to conserve crucial natural areas.

“Conserving this forest along the New River Gorge is a conservation success story for all of West Virginia,” West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III said in TNC release announcing the New River Gorge deal’s closing early this year. “This project is an excellent example of a wise state investment in our natural resources. It provides a new place for public recreation, continuing to make West Virginia a destination for hunters and tourists and improving the quality of life for West Virginians.”

The Mountain State will pay back TNC over time, using funds generated each year from hunting and fishing license fees. The property, formerly owned by Mountain Top Management, Inc., borders National Park Service lands of the New River Gorge National River for more than 4.5 miles.

“We had completed a land transaction with the owner in Maryland and they indicated they had this property available in West Virginia and inquired if we were interested. We were, because it buffered the forests owned by the National Park Service in the New River Gorge, which we had identified as being important because it is one of the least fragmented large forested blocks in the Central Appalachians,” said Bartgis, noting that the new purchase, added to existing conserved lands, protects a total of 10,000 acres of state-owned land on the plateau overlooking the gorge.

According to the TNC, a National Park Service study concluded that tourists spend more than $75 million a year in the four-county area surrounding the New River.

"I see conservation of land and economic development as symbiotic," Dave Arnold, member of the West Virginia Tourism Commission and co-owner of Class VI River Runners, one of the New River Gorge's largest rafting companies, said in a statement released by TNC. "The acquisition of this tract shows that we can strike a balance between development and conservation. Assuring these lands will be available for enjoyment of the public spurs economic growth by drawing sportsmen to local businesses and by providing another amenity that can attract visitors to the region."
Bartgis concluded “The Nature Conservancy used its abilities to marshal financial resources at the speed of business, enabling the State to undertake a transaction it otherwise could not.”

Land trusts -- ranging from the giants such as TNC, the National Parks Trust and the Trust for Public Land down to little local nonprofits created simply to save a little park from being paved over or to ensure that a stream is protected from agricultural or industrial pollution – are growing throughout this nation as a hedge against land misuse and urban sprawl.

The Land Trust Alliance (LTA), a Washington D.C.-based organization that coordinates procedure, information, ethical standards, technology, policy, training and more for 1,700 land trusts across America, counted fewer than 450 state and local land trusts nationwide when it was created 25 years ago.

“America’s 1,700 land trusts are local, citizen-led charities that work to protect special places in their communities, said LTA President Rand Wentworth. “Voters are increasingly demanding clean drinking water, local farms, parks, and wildlife habitat. Instead of meeting these needs through government condemnation or regulation, land trusts are politically attractive since they respect private property rights and offer tax incentives for landowners to voluntarily conserve their property.”

The LTA worked with Congress to pass a major increase in federal conservation tax incentives to help many farmers and ranchers to be relieved of paying federal income taxes for 16 years in exchange for donating a conservation easement on their land. The extension for the increased incentive expires in 2009 and LTA is lobbying hard to make the law permanent.

“Private land conservation makes economic sense,” Wentworth said. “Unlike a new subdivision, farms and green space do not require expensive public services like schools, fire protection, water and sewer. So land conservation can help keep property taxes from increasing: cows don’t go to school.”

Wentworth said the more than two million people that are land trust members and at the least 90,000 professionals that work for America’s land trusts are making unparalleled progress.

“During the 1990s America developed about 2.2 million acres per year, according to the USDA's Natural Resources Inventory,” he said. Since the late 1990s, permanent land protection by private landowners, working with land trusts, actually outpaced development. From 1998-2005, approximately 2.6 million acres per year were permanently conserved by private land trusts.”

Carl Palmer -- principal and co-founder of Bozeman, Montana-based Beartooth Capital Partners, a conservation-minded investment firm – cut his teeth in the preservation business while serving as Executive Director of the Ogden Nature Center, a land trust and education center in Northern Utah.

Land trusts continue to be an important cog in his successful group which makes private equity investments that generate competitive risk-adjusted returns while restoring and protecting ecologically important land in the Western United States.

“We make investments that create value and mitigate risk for our investors while having a compelling conservation impact,” Palmer said. “We work with leading conservation groups including The Nature Conservancy and others to enhance the amount of conservation they would otherwise be able to accomplish on their own.”

“In the past two years, we have helped restore miles of river and stream, return water rights to in-stream use, and permanently protect 5,000 acres -- with 7,500 more acres in process to be protected,” he continued. “We’re really just getting started. The potential to help protect tens and even hundreds of thousands of acres through private investments is very real. If we’re going to accomplish enough conservation in the next 10-20 years to protect places like the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, we had better realize that potential.”

Working with land trusts and land owners, Beartooth generates tax savings by placing conservation easements on properties that will remain private. It also has occasionally brokered the transfer of ownership of high priority conservation land to public agencies or nonprofits.

”We create value in a variety of ways, from fixing flaws with properties to enhancing their value as recreational ranches through restoration of rivers and streams.” Palmer explained. “Each project is unique – we simply look for opportunities to create financial value while doing what is right for the land and what our conservation partners want to see happen. It certainly doesn’t work for every property, but there are lots of opportunities to create financial value while protecting and enhancing ecological value – the two often go hand in hand if you bring the right perspective to bear on the problem.”

Palmer and his partners started Beartooth because of the tremendous potential they saw for private capital to play an important role increasing the amount of land conserved. He said Beartooth Capital is compiling a track record of achievement that demonstrates investors can earn strong returns while helping conservation groups fulfill their critical missions.

“The important work that nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy and Montana Land Reliance are doing is absolutely critical if we’re going to protect the West’s wide-open landscapes and the wildlife that live there,” he said. “But the pace of habitat conversion and development is such that everyone agrees we’re not getting enough done – we need to figure out ways to change the game and accomplish conservation at a greater scale. Since there is so much more private capital than there is philanthropic and government funding, the conservation community has long looked for vehicles that could effectively put private investment capital to work in a way that leads to real conservation results.”

Keith Fountain, director of land acquisition for The Nature Conservancy's Florida office, said land trusts can influence the decisions of large real estate holders to protect nature while also protecting their bottom line.

“Rayonier was auctioning a 3,000-acre block in the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama and to their credit, they pulled about one third land out of the auction package to sell it in a straight transaction to us,” Fountain said of the publicly-traded company that owns, leases or manages 2.6 million acres of timberland in the U.S. and New Zealand and sells timber for use in domestic and export markets.

“That company has a strong commitment to the sale of their lands that are important for conservation,” Fountain said of Rayonier, which is proud that -- as one of the largest private timberland owners in the U.S. -- its forests are certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative

Fountain said the former Rayonier lands were crucial because they were part of the “holes in the Swiss cheese” that represent private holdings within the huge Blackwater State Forest in Florida’s Panhandle.

Managed by the state’s Division of Forestry, the gigantic tract along the Blackwater River offers recreational opportunities such as hiking, swimming, camping, canoeing, fishing, hunting, mountain biking, horseback riding and nature study.

“There is a realization that green space and conservation land enhances the value of neighboring properties. As we often say, land is precious and they’re not making any more of it,” said John Sebree, head of public policy for the Florida Association of Realtors.

Sebree said Realtors are active with land trusts and understand that the environmental impacts of development can make it more difficult for communities to protect their natural resources.

“Where and how communities accommodate growth has a profound impact on the quality of their streams, rivers, lakes and beaches,” he said. “Development that uses land efficiently and protects undisturbed natural lands allows a community to grow and still protect its water resources.”

In Texas, the Hill Country Conservancy (HCC) just completed a deal to save a 1,318-acre section of the historic Storm Ranch located in northern Hays County. Through various phases working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Texas Parks & Wildlife staff, the HCC has conserved the “5,675-acre working cattle ranch with ancient rock fences separating pastures of native grasses, magnificent live oaks and numerous creeks and streams.”

George Cofer, executive director of the HCC, said the final phase, to preserve the entire ranch, should be completed in 2010.

“Conservation and enhancement of the many `public good’ values can be achieved through land trusts working collaboratively with land owners to ensure proper range management practices that will conserve and often enhance wildlife habitat, scenic vistas and open space, water resources and archeological, historical and cultural resources,” he said. “Land Conservation can also provide environmental learning and public recreational opportunities. Preservation of the rural ranching/agricultural legacy is important to many communities as well.”

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