The Hicks v. Dowd case that NPR featured is complicated. The nuances of the case and its implications cannot fit into a single NPR radio piece. The Wyoming Law Review will publish a lengthy analysis of the case this summer. See: http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/law/Student_life/lawreview.asp.
Two cases about conservation easement donations to a public agency:
The land conservation community does not want to let stand the impression that conservation easements are transitory, nor that land trusts lightly terminate perpetual conservation easements or dispose of fee-owned conservation land for development. The Alliance has taken several steps to explain and address this misconception and related issues:
Land Trust Alliance Initiatives to Ensure Permanence
The Alliance is aware of and shares your concern about the potential negative impact of this NPR coverage. The alliance is helping to create good case law, educate attorneys, collect useful legal materials and provide tools to land trusts. These steps are intended to assist the land trust community in making all conservation easements permanent. The Alliance is also working to help all land trusts be strong and effective through Land Trust Standards and Practices, Rally: the National Land Conservation Conference, The Learning Center, the Standards and Practices Curriculum, and the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance.
The best way to avoid legal challenges is to prevent them. The Alliance's training courses are building the knowledge of land trust practitioners, helping them draft strong legal documents and implement sound easement stewardship.
Since August 2007, the Conservation Defense Initiative launched the Network and initiated regular teleconference and regional conference meetings to facilitate information sharing and problem solving among experienced conservation leaders across the country. The online forum allows Network members to address issues rapidly. The Alliance also established the Conservation Defense Fund, for use by the Alliance to intervene in precedent-setting cases, usually by filing a friend of the court brief. Several large law firms around the country have volunteered their services to the Fund to assist with conservation permanence.
Also underway is an investigation of the feasibility of conservation defense insurance so that all land trusts can have access to money and resources to uphold conservation permanence. The Alliance hopes by Rally to report to members about the potential feasibility of such insurance, including proposed policy coverage, premiums, deductibles, claims, review and underwriting standards.
Finally, the Alliance increased its capacity to assist land trusts with enforcement and defense issues, dissemination and analysis of new case law, and guidance in addressing IRS concerns.
Addressing Public Perception and Media Relations
We all know that what is legally true is rarely accepted or appreciated by the general public, especially if the general public hears snippets of news articles while commuting to work or getting the kids off to school. So the Alliance is taking proactive steps on behalf of the land trust community to increase the public's conviction that conservation easements held by knowledgeable, publicly accountable land trusts are indeed permanent.
Here is what the Alliance is doing:
The Alliance suggests to members that, in responding to this NPR story or any other piece, remember the following:
Here are some themes to consider and echo in your own messaging:
We cannot control what NPR may or may not run in response, but we are requesting a follow-up story and will keep you informed of progress. Also, please let us know if you see any local or regional media coverage that may piggyback on the NPR story. Keep in mind the advice to not perpetuate a story by responding too fervently or too frequently to it.
Please let us know if you see any local or regional media coverage that "piggybacks" on the NPR story. We hope this is helpful, and if you have feedback please contact Jim Wyerman, Director of Communications & Development at 202-638-4725 x 310 or communications@lta.org.
Addressing Policy Issues
Separate from the narrow legal fact that Hicks v. Dowd affects only government-held conservation easements is the larger impact that the case has had, and will continue to have, on policy development. This impact is driven both by public perception and by IRS concerns about conservation permanence.
Despite the limited facts in Hicks v. Dowd, the case is contributing significantly to the discussion about the applicability of the charitable trust doctrine to all conservation easements. It may also drive changes in the tax law to apply the same penalties and reporting requirements to government-affiliated land trusts as are currently applicable to publicly-supported land trusts. Attorney General intervention in conservation easement cases has been rare to date. Experts disagree about the advisability and efficacy of such intervention. For more information about the charitable trust doctrine, read the article by Nancy McLaughlin. See also, the Land Trust Alliance research report entitled "Amending Conservation Easements: Evolving Practices and Legal Principles," from August 2007. It can be found on The Learning Center. You will need to login in, click on Library and search by the report title.
Ultimately, the applicability of the charitable trust doctrine and the involvement of Attorneys General are questions of state law.
This debate also supports the need for additional outreach by the Alliance and the land trust community to all government easement holders. Alliance staff is working closely with federal government holders, and some state holders to help them better prepare for conservation permanence.
Addressing Practice Issues
Hicks v. Dowd illustrates the problems with groups accepting conservation easements that do not have the knowledge, resources or resolve to steward them. Full implementation of Land Trust Standards and Practices, as applicable to each individual conservation organization, is one way to ensure conservation permanence. Land trusts can minimize risks of conflict with careful land protection criteria, strategic conservation planning, appropriate evaluation of conservation options, thorough baseline documentation of conservation easement-protected land, annual visits and good communication with landowners. The purposeful protection of land and strategically directed conservation also will help prevent future challenges.
The rapid increase of land protected by private land trusts through conservation easements makes it likely that the proposed termination and modification of conservation easements will become more frequent. This is particularly true as conservation easements age and as ownership of conserved land changes. Conservation easement holders can address these issues by adopting and implementing written policies on conservation easement amendments, termination, condemnation and enforcement.
Nancy McLaughlin aptly observed that "as the cache of conservation easements in this country continues to grow, and as those easements, the vast majority of which are perpetual, begin to age, it will become increasingly important to determine whether, when and how easements that no longer accomplish their intended conservation purposes can be modified or terminated." (Nancy A. McLaughlin, "Rethinking the Perpetual Nature of Conservation Easements," 29 Harvard Environmental Law Review, 422, 424 (2005) at www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/elr/ and at http:// learningcenter.lta.org/objects/view.acs?object_id=17089.
Equally important is building sufficient skills in all land trusts so that termination can be avoided. Many tools exist and more can be created, that allow issues such as those raised in Hicks v. Dowd and in Walter v. Otero County Land Trust to be addressed without easement termination while still preserving the landowner relationship. Land trusts are encouraged to conduct annual visits to conserved land, build trusting landowner relationships, especially with successor owners, provide landowners access to conservation education and resources, and keep sufficient records to uphold an easement's conservation purposes.
Exercising due diligence prior to completing a conservation transaction is also critical. The due diligence required to satisfy the IRS requirements for tax-deductible easements and that required to ensure permanence and ease of stewardship often are different and require different practices. Land trusts can learn from Hicks v. Dowd that a prudent course of action includes a conservation with owners of any severed mineral interest, even if the landowner has obtained the "remoteness letter" required by the IRS. In a best-case scenario, the mineral rights holder may agree to extinguish its rights or subordinate them to the conservation easement. At a minimum, this conversation serves to notify the mineral estate holder of the conservation easement and provides an opportunity for the land trust and landowner to convince the holder to limit its area of exploration or its extraction activities in such a way as to minimize the adverse impact on the conservation resources.
A close reading of the Treasury Regulations at section 1.170A-14(g)(4) and the examples cited indicate that further steps for severed oil and gas interests may be required in order for the easement to qualify as a charitable deduction. While limited, localized disturbance that does not interfere with the overall conservation purpose is permitted, any extraction activities that are "irremediably destructive of significant conservation interests" must be prohibited. To be bound by the terms of the conservation easement, the owner of any minerals whose claim predates the easement must subordinate his or her interest in the minerals to the easement. Land trusts must take additional steps to minimize the adverse impact of all pre-existing legal rights on conserved land to uphold conservation permanence.
Attorneys can also help with better drafting of conservation easements, anticipating potential conflicts and resolving them beforehand. Attorneys and land trusts can help grantors and successor landowners understand the full implications of a permanent conservation easement before they either place an easement on their land or buy conserved property.
In addition, for those unanticipated dilemmas that often occur with a permanent conservation easement, there is a critical middle ground in response to conflicts, such as those shown in the two cases above. Experienced land trusts understand that conflict resolution does not have to result in either land trust capitulation or aggrieved landowners. There can be a satisfactory solution for all that upholds conservation easement purposes, complies with the law and addresses landowner concerns. Knowing how to balance those issues and being expert in addressing problems and finding solutions are the hallmarks of effective conservation organizations.
When voluntary solutions fail, land trusts and their attorneys also must be prepared to defend easements in court if necessary. For many land trusts without sufficient funds for defending easements, the cost of a single lawsuit could threaten the land trust's survival. Congress and the IRS have both raised questions about the ability of land trusts to defend their easements. Currently, land trusts have no conservation defense insurance available. If a land trust fails to properly defend an easement, it could result in bad case law that may jeopardize easements held by other organizations across the United States. To address these threats, it is essential for all conservation easement holders to exercise leadership to ensure the permanence and quality of land conservation. Implementing Land Trust Standards and Practices is one method to accomplish this goal. Working with the Alliance on collective conservation defense in another.
It is worth noting that several government agencies have adopted Land Trust Standards and Practices and are managing conservation easements and landowner requests responsibly and effectively. These groups are to be applauded and used as models for government conservation everywhere on the thousands of conservation easements and fee-owned land under the care of local, state, and federal government.
Conclusion
The land trust community and the Alliance are working to make all land trusts strong and all conservation permanent. As the work of land trusts becomes more visible, however, new threats to conservation easements and fee-owned properties will occur. These threats may come from successor landowners, neighbors or others in the community who do not share the conservation vision of the original grantor, or from lack of public confidence in the permanence of conservation.
The best way to prevent and prepare for challenges to conservation easements and land trusts owned land is to implement good practices, as defined in Land Trust Standards and Practices. How a land trust responds to a potential violation or to a landowner request, especially for amendments or termination of a conservation easement, affects the enforceability of that easement and potentially all other easements. It also affects the public trust and confidence in conservation as a whole as demonstrated by the NPR feature on the Wyoming easement termination.
Conservation easements are new legal tools, and the enabling statutes have not been in place long enough for the development of a full body of case law. As the first cases make their way through state court systems, they are likely to be cases of first impression. States without case law on the topic will look to those states to inform their decisions. It is important that land trusts work together to defend conservation permanence and build a strong body of favorable case law in every state.
Conservation organizations concerned with the credibility and sustainability of conservation, therefore, may want to do everything possible to ensure good practices and sound policies and implement their programs to uphold conservation permanence.
]]>The Hicks v. Dowd case that NPR featured is complicated. The nuances of the case and its implications cannot fit into a single NPR radio piece. The Wyoming Law Review will publish a lengthy analysis of the case this summer. See: http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/law/Student_life/lawreview.asp.
Two cases about conservation easement donations to a public agency:
The land conservation community does not want to let stand the impression that conservation easements are transitory, nor that land trusts lightly terminate perpetual conservation easements or dispose of fee-owned conservation land for development. The Alliance has taken several steps to explain and address this misconception and related issues:
Land Trust Alliance Initiatives to Ensure Permanence
The Alliance is aware of and shares your concern about the potential negative impact of this NPR coverage. The alliance is helping to create good case law, educate attorneys, collect useful legal materials and provide tools to land trusts. These steps are intended to assist the land trust community in making all conservation easements permanent. The Alliance is also working to help all land trusts be strong and effective through Land Trust Standards and Practices, Rally: the National Land Conservation Conference, The Learning Center, the Standards and Practices Curriculum, and the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance.
The best way to avoid legal challenges is to prevent them. The Alliance's training courses are building the knowledge of land trust practitioners, helping them draft strong legal documents and implement sound easement stewardship.
Since August 2007, the Conservation Defense Initiative launched the Network and initiated regular teleconference and regional conference meetings to facilitate information sharing and problem solving among experienced conservation leaders across the country. The online forum allows Network members to address issues rapidly. The Alliance also established the Conservation Defense Fund, for use by the Alliance to intervene in precedent-setting cases, usually by filing a friend of the court brief. Several large law firms around the country have volunteered their services to the Fund to assist with conservation permanence.
Also underway is an investigation of the feasibility of conservation defense insurance so that all land trusts can have access to money and resources to uphold conservation permanence. The Alliance hopes by Rally to report to members about the potential feasibility of such insurance, including proposed policy coverage, premiums, deductibles, claims, review and underwriting standards.
Finally, the Alliance increased its capacity to assist land trusts with enforcement and defense issues, dissemination and analysis of new case law, and guidance in addressing IRS concerns.
Addressing Public Perception and Media Relations
We all know that what is legally true is rarely accepted or appreciated by the general public, especially if the general public hears snippets of news articles while commuting to work or getting the kids off to school. So the Alliance is taking proactive steps on behalf of the land trust community to increase the public's conviction that conservation easements held by knowledgeable, publicly accountable land trusts are indeed permanent.
Here is what the Alliance is doing:
The Alliance suggests to members that, in responding to this NPR story or any other piece, remember the following:
Here are some themes to consider and echo in your own messaging:
We cannot control what NPR may or may not run in response, but we are requesting a follow-up story and will keep you informed of progress. Also, please let us know if you see any local or regional media coverage that may piggyback on the NPR story. Keep in mind the advice to not perpetuate a story by responding too fervently or too frequently to it.
Please let us know if you see any local or regional media coverage that "piggybacks" on the NPR story. We hope this is helpful, and if you have feedback please contact Jim Wyerman, Director of Communications & Development at 202-638-4725 x 310 or communications@lta.org.
Addressing Policy Issues
Separate from the narrow legal fact that Hicks v. Dowd affects only government-held conservation easements is the larger impact that the case has had, and will continue to have, on policy development. This impact is driven both by public perception and by IRS concerns about conservation permanence.
Despite the limited facts in Hicks v. Dowd, the case is contributing significantly to the discussion about the applicability of the charitable trust doctrine to all conservation easements. It may also drive changes in the tax law to apply the same penalties and reporting requirements to government-affiliated land trusts as are currently applicable to publicly-supported land trusts. Attorney General intervention in conservation easement cases has been rare to date. Experts disagree about the advisability and efficacy of such intervention. For more information about the charitable trust doctrine, read the article by Nancy McLaughlin. See also, the Land Trust Alliance research report entitled "Amending Conservation Easements: Evolving Practices and Legal Principles," from August 2007. It can be found on The Learning Center. You will need to login in, click on Library and search by the report title.
Ultimately, the applicability of the charitable trust doctrine and the involvement of Attorneys General are questions of state law.
This debate also supports the need for additional outreach by the Alliance and the land trust community to all government easement holders. Alliance staff is working closely with federal government holders, and some state holders to help them better prepare for conservation permanence.
Addressing Practice Issues
Hicks v. Dowd illustrates the problems with groups accepting conservation easements that do not have the knowledge, resources or resolve to steward them. Full implementation of Land Trust Standards and Practices, as applicable to each individual conservation organization, is one way to ensure conservation permanence. Land trusts can minimize risks of conflict with careful land protection criteria, strategic conservation planning, appropriate evaluation of conservation options, thorough baseline documentation of conservation easement-protected land, annual visits and good communication with landowners. The purposeful protection of land and strategically directed conservation also will help prevent future challenges.
The rapid increase of land protected by private land trusts through conservation easements makes it likely that the proposed termination and modification of conservation easements will become more frequent. This is particularly true as conservation easements age and as ownership of conserved land changes. Conservation easement holders can address these issues by adopting and implementing written policies on conservation easement amendments, termination, condemnation and enforcement.
Nancy McLaughlin aptly observed that "as the cache of conservation easements in this country continues to grow, and as those easements, the vast majority of which are perpetual, begin to age, it will become increasingly important to determine whether, when and how easements that no longer accomplish their intended conservation purposes can be modified or terminated." (Nancy A. McLaughlin, "Rethinking the Perpetual Nature of Conservation Easements," 29 Harvard Environmental Law Review, 422, 424 (2005) at www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/elr/ and at http:// learningcenter.lta.org/objects/view.acs?object_id=17089.
Equally important is building sufficient skills in all land trusts so that termination can be avoided. Many tools exist and more can be created, that allow issues such as those raised in Hicks v. Dowd and in Walter v. Otero County Land Trust to be addressed without easement termination while still preserving the landowner relationship. Land trusts are encouraged to conduct annual visits to conserved land, build trusting landowner relationships, especially with successor owners, provide landowners access to conservation education and resources, and keep sufficient records to uphold an easement's conservation purposes.
Exercising due diligence prior to completing a conservation transaction is also critical. The due diligence required to satisfy the IRS requirements for tax-deductible easements and that required to ensure permanence and ease of stewardship often are different and require different practices. Land trusts can learn from Hicks v. Dowd that a prudent course of action includes a conservation with owners of any severed mineral interest, even if the landowner has obtained the "remoteness letter" required by the IRS. In a best-case scenario, the mineral rights holder may agree to extinguish its rights or subordinate them to the conservation easement. At a minimum, this conversation serves to notify the mineral estate holder of the conservation easement and provides an opportunity for the land trust and landowner to convince the holder to limit its area of exploration or its extraction activities in such a way as to minimize the adverse impact on the conservation resources.
A close reading of the Treasury Regulations at section 1.170A-14(g)(4) and the examples cited indicate that further steps for severed oil and gas interests may be required in order for the easement to qualify as a charitable deduction. While limited, localized disturbance that does not interfere with the overall conservation purpose is permitted, any extraction activities that are "irremediably destructive of significant conservation interests" must be prohibited. To be bound by the terms of the conservation easement, the owner of any minerals whose claim predates the easement must subordinate his or her interest in the minerals to the easement. Land trusts must take additional steps to minimize the adverse impact of all pre-existing legal rights on conserved land to uphold conservation permanence.
Attorneys can also help with better drafting of conservation easements, anticipating potential conflicts and resolving them beforehand. Attorneys and land trusts can help grantors and successor landowners understand the full implications of a permanent conservation easement before they either place an easement on their land or buy conserved property.
In addition, for those unanticipated dilemmas that often occur with a permanent conservation easement, there is a critical middle ground in response to conflicts, such as those shown in the two cases above. Experienced land trusts understand that conflict resolution does not have to result in either land trust capitulation or aggrieved landowners. There can be a satisfactory solution for all that upholds conservation easement purposes, complies with the law and addresses landowner concerns. Knowing how to balance those issues and being expert in addressing problems and finding solutions are the hallmarks of effective conservation organizations.
When voluntary solutions fail, land trusts and their attorneys also must be prepared to defend easements in court if necessary. For many land trusts without sufficient funds for defending easements, the cost of a single lawsuit could threaten the land trust's survival. Congress and the IRS have both raised questions about the ability of land trusts to defend their easements. Currently, land trusts have no conservation defense insurance available. If a land trust fails to properly defend an easement, it could result in bad case law that may jeopardize easements held by other organizations across the United States. To address these threats, it is essential for all conservation easement holders to exercise leadership to ensure the permanence and quality of land conservation. Implementing Land Trust Standards and Practices is one method to accomplish this goal. Working with the Alliance on collective conservation defense in another.
It is worth noting that several government agencies have adopted Land Trust Standards and Practices and are managing conservation easements and landowner requests responsibly and effectively. These groups are to be applauded and used as models for government conservation everywhere on the thousands of conservation easements and fee-owned land under the care of local, state, and federal government.
Conclusion
The land trust community and the Alliance are working to make all land trusts strong and all conservation permanent. As the work of land trusts becomes more visible, however, new threats to conservation easements and fee-owned properties will occur. These threats may come from successor landowners, neighbors or others in the community who do not share the conservation vision of the original grantor, or from lack of public confidence in the permanence of conservation.
The best way to prevent and prepare for challenges to conservation easements and land trusts owned land is to implement good practices, as defined in Land Trust Standards and Practices. How a land trust responds to a potential violation or to a landowner request, especially for amendments or termination of a conservation easement, affects the enforceability of that easement and potentially all other easements. It also affects the public trust and confidence in conservation as a whole as demonstrated by the NPR feature on the Wyoming easement termination.
Conservation easements are new legal tools, and the enabling statutes have not been in place long enough for the development of a full body of case law. As the first cases make their way through state court systems, they are likely to be cases of first impression. States without case law on the topic will look to those states to inform their decisions. It is important that land trusts work together to defend conservation permanence and build a strong body of favorable case law in every state.
Conservation organizations concerned with the credibility and sustainability of conservation, therefore, may want to do everything possible to ensure good practices and sound policies and implement their programs to uphold conservation permanence.
]]>Contact:
Rick McMonagle
Director of Development and Communications
McKenzie River Trust
541-345-2799 X114
McKenzie River Trust Receives 2009 Outstanding Environmental Organization Award for Leadership in Habitat Conservation and Management from the Oregon Recreation and Park Association.
The Natural Resources Section of the Oregon Recreation and Park Association (ORPA) has chosen the McKenzie River Trust for their 2009 Outstanding Environmental Organization Award for Leadership in Habitat Conservation and Management. The acknowledgment includes a $200 cash award.
The award was presented to Joe Moll, Executive Director of the McKenzie River Trust, at the 2009 ORPA Annual Conference at the Seaside Convention Center, Seaside, OR on Tuesday, September 22, 2009. The McKenzie River Trust was chosen for this award in 2009 based on their stewardship of lands in Lane and Douglas counties.
“During the course of our work as park professionals, we encounter many individuals and organizations who are providing exceptional service in preservation, restoration, and management of natural areas. Each year the Natural Resources Section of Oregon Recreation and Park Association selects one organization that we feel personifies leadership in habitat conservation and management,” said Julie Reilly, Director-at-Large, Natural Resource Section of the ORPA. “We wish to recognize them for their hard work, dedication in the face of great odds, and accomplishments in natural area restoration, preservation, and promotion,” she added.
The McKenzie River Trust dedicates significant resources each year to protect special lands in western Oregon from the Cascades to the Coast. “We were very surprised and honored to receive this recognition from ORPA for our conservation work,” stated Joe Moll, Executive Director of the Trust. “We’ve been really encouraged by the growing interest that the parks and rec professional community has taken in habitat conservation, so to have our efforts highlighted by them is really quite exciting,” he added.
The Oregon Recreation and Park Association is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization founded in 1954 whose mission is to support members through training, professional development, legislative advocacy, & peer networking, in order to enhance the quality of recreation and park services.
The McKenzie River Trust is a local grassroots land trust working since 1989 to protect special lands in Lane and Douglas county Oregon for their fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, and scenic values. The Trust has been recognized by its partners for being creative with its projects, professional in its work with landowners, and committed to the community. For more information on the Trust go to www.mckenzieriver.org.
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# # #
Contact Information:
Jessica McDonald, Development Coordinator
Greenbelt Land Trust
(541) 752.9609
jessica@greenbeltlandtrust.org
Greenbelt Land Trust Announces new Executive Director
Corvallis – The Greenbelt Land Trust has named Michael Pope as Executive Director of the organization, effective February 1st.
“The Greenbelt Board of Directors is committed to continuing the organization’s tradition of excellence, and we feel that Michael has a unique combination of regional conservation experience, leadership skills and vision that will continue to advance the work that the Land Trust has successfully accomplished throughout the past twenty years,” said Cary Stephens, chair of the Greenbelt Board.
Pope has extensive state-wide and local conservation experience, having served as the Oregon Conservation Strategy Coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and as the Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) Wildlife Mitigation Coordinator. “I’ve enjoyed an interesting career from conducting and coordinating research on species and habitats to providing direction and funding to restore and protect wildlife habitats,” said Pope.
“I am very excited about becoming the Executive Director of the Greenbelt Land Trust and look forward to the new challenges as this organization continues to grow and expand into new communities, “ said Pope, who has lived in Corvallis for the past 22 years. “The organization has done tremendous work in the Mid-Willamette Valley and provided permanent protections for hundreds of acres of valuable habitat and open space.”
Pope has worked extensively in the Willamette Basin with Federal and state natural resource agencies and non-profits to implement restoration and protections of key habitats such as upland and wet prairie and oak savanna. Pope has been a key partner with the Greenbelt Land Trust and helped facilitate the acquisition of conservation easements on the Little Willamette, Willamette Bluffs and Lone Star Properties through Bonneville Power Administration funding.
Michael has a diverse background, ranging from a BA in Asian History to 13 years as a professional boat builder, practicing his craft from Maine to Maryland to Alaska. One day in Bristol Bay, Alaska, he straightened up from a boat he was repairing to watch a flock of tundra swans as they flew overhead.
“It was a cathartic moment,” he said. “I suddenly knew that I wanted to work with tundra swans and grizzly bears and fish and their habitats—I wanted to study the attributes of the natural world.”
In addition to his B.A. from the University of North Carolina, he earned a B.S. and an M.S from Oregon State University and a Ph.D. from Oregon State University in Wildlife Sciences.
More information about the Greenbelt Land Trust can be found online at www.greenbeltlandtrust.org.
###
]]>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: James Monteith
Wallowa Land Trust
james@wallowalandtrust.org
Julia Lakes
Wallowa Land Trust
julia@wallowalandtrust.org | 541-426-2042
Woody Wolfe
Landowner
541-263-0802
ENTERPRISE, OR -- Today the Wallowa Land Trust and Woody Wolfe Ranch announced establishment of the first agricultural Conservation Easement on a working farm in Wallowa County. This mid-Wallowa Valley easement covers ranchlands surrounding the confluence of the Lostine and Wallowa Rivers, near Highway 82 between the towns of Lostine and Wallowa, on both sides of Baker Road.
This Conservation Easement encompasses 197 acres: 161 acres of prime farm ground and 36 acres of aquatic lands, including about 2.5 miles of river, the confluence itself, and associated riparian areas and wetlands. It will dedicate the property to agricultural uses in perpetuity, guaranteeing the tradition of farming and ranching while precluding residential development. The easement will reduce pressure on streamsides from commercial grazing and development along the river corridors, restoring critical wetlands functions and enhancing habitat for spring Chinook salmon, summer steelhead, resident bull trout, and other fish and wildlife populations.
Conservation Easements are voluntary legal agreements between landowners and land trusts, created to protect natural and traditional values of the property in perpetuity. This is the fourth such easement in the county and the first on a working farm or ranch. The Wolfe family will continue to own and farm their property.
For the landowner, this Conservation Easement provides several economic benefits. Woody Wolfe, who with his wife Megan farms this property and adjoining agricultural lands, noted “the easement was something I could do to bring my net cost of property down closer to agricultural production value, without dividing off pieces and selling them for homes. Since this has been in the works for almost seven years, we’ve had time to be thorough. It ensures the land will stay in farm production. We’ve donated part of the assessed value of the easement. However, the land trust is buying most of it, and we can use the income to reduce debt and improve our cash-flow position.”
This is the Wallowa Land Trust’s first purchased Conservation Easement. “The easement will help stabilize the agricultural landbase in the middle valley as well as secure intact reaches of the Wallowa and Lostine Rivers,” commented James Monteith, President of the Trust, based in Enterprise. “It underscores our commitment to working farms and ranches throughout the Wallowa Country, and demonstrates how voluntary private lands conservation can serve both agriculture and fish and wildlife resources,” he continued. “This easement guarantees the property will remain in agricultural production, and also will improve water quality by protecting riparian areas and critical wetlands in this important river system.”
Wolfe elaborated on his family’s interest and motivation for the farm easement. “I don't want this valley to look like a suburb. A lot of people in this county seem to be attached to scenic values. This is a way to capitalize on its economic value while preserving what people like here.” A sixth generation member of his family, he raises a variety of crops, primarily wheat, and leases portions of the property for cattle grazing.
The Lostine-Wallowa Confluence Conservation Easement comprises a little under half the full parcel of 454 acres of farm ground eventually to be under easement. It’s the first in a two-step process to secure funding for the entire Conservation Easement by the Wallowa Land Trust, which is now in the process of raising additional monies to complete the easement on the remaining 257 acres of this parcel.
The Easement Property represents many significant Wallowa County traditions. It lies within the larger Wolfe Century Ranch, originally established in 1897 and designated a Century Farm in 1997. From time immemorial, it served as a traditional Indian summer fishing camp for the Wallowa Band Nez Perce (the W’al’wama), and today is a private lands unit of the Nez Perce National Historical Park. Old Chief Joseph died here in 1871 and was originally buried nearby, before being reinterred in 1926 at the Indian Cemetery at the foot of Wallowa Lake, adjacent to the recently acquired Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Site.
Many local families and individuals contributed to this effort, helping the Trust pay for the easement. Along with a series of small grants, these donations provided initial support to complete the required natural resource inventories, surveys and appraisals. Acquisition funds were provided in part by generous grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, to protect important fish and wildlife habitat identified in Oregon’s Wildlife Action Plan, and by PacifiCorp/PGE.
###
The Wallowa Land Trust was founded in 2004 and is governed by local residents. Its mission is “to protect the rural nature of the Wallowa Valley and surrounding areas by working cooperatively with private landowners, governmental entities, Indian tribes and local communities.” The Trust uses economic incentives to help conserve the valley’s natural, historic, cultural and agricultural resources, including forests, farmlands, ranchlands, grasslands, wetlands, waterways and open space, for the benefit of present and future generations. It purchases, and/or receives in donation, Conservation Easements and fee title properties from willing sellers. In some instances it works with landowners to find motivated buyers to maintain traditional uses of their lands.
The Trust operates three major programs: Farms & Ranchlands, its largest program area, whose purpose is to secure agricultural ground as perpetual working lands, helping keep farms and ranches intact; Indian Sacred Lands; and Habitat & Open Ground. Its office is on South River Street, across from the county courthouse.
]]>