For the Win

Working together, land trusts and parks and recreation agencies can multiply the benefits they offer their communities, creating a clear win for the home team.

When Astri Baillie ran for borough council in Madison, New Jersey, she heard complaints that the town’s recreational facilities hadn’t kept up with the boom in youth sports. With three colleges, historic mansions and Main Street shops packed into 4 square miles just a short train ride from Manhattan, the borough had everything except room for more athletic fields.

Even the local high school had to rent space from a real estate developer for its baseball and soccer fields.

With forethought, though, the borough had hired The Land Conservancy of New Jersey (accredited) to join its open space advisory council. Barbara Heskins Davis, vice president of programs for the conservancy, attended the council’s monthly meetings. When the developer decided to build, the council had the property on a watch list and was ready to take action.

“This property was expensive and the deal was complex,” says Davis. “Because it straddled two towns, it required an annexation and multiple funding partners.” Annexing the land allowed the borough to tap into its open space trust fund, which the conservancy helped establish.

“Barbara took the lead on financing,” says Raymond Codey, borough administrator. Through a series of grant applications, he says, the town received a total of $7.3 million from the county open space fund and $1.3 million from New Jersey’s Green Acres program. The deal closed in 2008.

Today the 49-acre Madison Recreation Complex is owned and managed by the borough. It has two turf fields that can be used for multiple sports; a community garden with 80 plots for people of all abilities; native-plant rain gardens and hiking trails through oak-shaded woods. It is also over the borough’s largest aquifer. In the past year the conservancy has helped the borough develop a conservation management plan to help sort out the many demands on the property. Community members sing the property’s praises.

“The connections across many programs in one venue have given our community something unique,” says Dave Carver, a youth softball volunteer. “When our high school varsity teams are playing on one field, and my first and second grade teams playing on the other side, I’m able to connect our youngest softball players with our oldest softball players. They, and their parents, can see what their future holds.”

Community garden volunteer Margaret Malishchak adds, “Certainly, people are getting outside and doing something active, but the garden is also providing fresh fruits and vegetables!”

Through similar partnerships around the country, land trusts can provide parks and recreation agencies with exactly the resources they lack, such as quick access to funding, mapping skills and a thorough knowledge of land conservation laws, procedures and resources. The parks and rec agencies can provide long-term stewardship and budgeted funding. The community is the clear winner, gaining access to places that improve health through fresh air, exercise and, sometimes, fresh food.

Filling the Gap

Look at a map of Corvallis, Oregon, and two big green spaces just west of the city’s grid stand out: the Bald Hill Natural Area, run by the City of Corvallis, and the Fitton Green Natural Area, run by Benton County. On maps, the area between the two has always been blank. The accredited Greenbelt Land Trust recently filled that gap.

For many years the owners of Bald Hill Farm, the property immediately west of the Bald Hill Natural Area, allowed the city’s trail network to spread through their land. Shrugging off this generous act, landowner Andrew Martin says, “It was self-interest. If you have recreational trails nearby, your property is worth more.” But he and his wife, Lauralee, were just getting started.

For decades a 170-acre privately held parcel between Bald Hill Farm and the county natural area left a gap in an extensive trail system. The county worked on planning future trails while the Greenbelt Land Trust explored acquisition options, says Jeff Powers, director of the Benton County Natural Areas and Parks Department.

The process of filling that gap began in 2010 when the Greenbelt Land Trust started to raise funds to purchase the 587-acre Bald Hill Farm from the Martins.

The land trust purchased the farm in 2013, and the Martins immediately bought the missing gap property, known as Mulkey Ridge. At the same time, they put a trail easement on the property so work on a 1.5-mile connector trail could begin.

Nearly a thousand volunteer hours went into building the trail, says Jessica McDonald, development director for the land trust. Today there are over 14 miles of trails connecting the county and city natural areas and over 1,400 acres of protected property. The trail system connects the Oregon State University campus to the natural area on the city outskirts. City residents can enjoy a day of outdoor fun without getting into a car.

Equally important, says Powers, is that all the land is part of a prairie restoration effort and provides habitat for two rare butterfly species. “This is a great example of how we can accomplish more together than we can in isolation.”

Teambuilding

Terry Miller, a local resident, remembers when the White Point Preserve was 102 acres guarded by a chain link fence in the heart of her neighborhood in San Pedro, a community within Los Angeles. There was a community garden deep inside the property, but the graffiti-tagged buildings and sense of abandonment didn’t invite lingering.

The site had once belonged to the Air Force, which deeded it to the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks in the 1970s. Those were tough times for city budgets, and little was done. It didn’t help that the neighborhood couldn’t decide the best use for the property. Sports fields? A golf course?

After the property had languished for decades, a Los Angeles City councilman kicked off a process to have the land serve the community and invited the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy (PVPLC) to join the conversation. “After a lengthy process, it was determined that the community wanted a nature preserve,” says Andrea Vona, executive director of PVPLC.

In 2001 the conservancy helped create a 25-year master plan for what would become the White Point Preserve. The City of Los Angeles still owns the property, but PVPLC has taken the lead in providing funding. The city and the land trust split the duties for keeping the preserve going.

“The city enforces the rules of the preserve and the municipal code. We are restoring and managing the natural habitat,” says Vona.

Over the past 15 years, the once abandoned site has been transformed into a nature preserve with 30 miles of trails, ocean views, native plants and a nature center housed in an historic building from the site’s military days, restored through PVPLC’s leadership.

The preserve offers the community much more than a place to walk, says Miller. “Many of us have become close friends and collaborative community members, building relationships through years of working for this community through this small parcel of open space.”

Defending the Zone

The work the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) has done to buffer Shenandoah National Park and the iconic Blue Ridge Parkway has enhanced the experience of more than 15 million annual visitors to the two National Park Service units. VOF holds 42 easements adjacent to the units, protecting 8,700 acres. It holds 444 easements within 5 miles, protecting 89,800 acres, many of them viewable from the park.

The Blue Ridge Parkway, which was the second-most visited National Park unit last year, is particularly vulnerable to nearby development, explains Sheila Gasperson, a National Park Service realty specialist for the parkway. “Except for the developed parts like Peaks of Otter and Mabry Mill, the parkway is only 800 to 1,000 feet wide,” she says. While drivers expect nonstop scenic beauty, in most places nothing prevents housing developments or strip malls from being built outside that corridor, says Gasperson.

When a 365-acre farm at milepost 25, used as a university conference center, went up for sale in 2009, it caught the attention both of the National Park Service and VOF. The farm has 1 mile of frontage on the parkway.

The sellers weren’t able to put an easement on the property before the sale, but VOF’s local involvement over the years paid off when the real estate agent floated the idea of placing a conservation easement with VOF on the property to potential buyers. “The buyers called me before they finalized the contract,” says Kristin Jones, VOF’s assistant director of easements.

The easement was recorded in December 2011. VOF and the National Park Service continue to work with the landowners, who are exploring business opportunities on the property, such as a farm stand or hunting preserve.

Buffers to parks and natural areas do more than protect views, says Tamara Vance, VOF deputy director. “Other VOF easements provide additional public access to National Forests and National Parks, connect larger areas of wildlife habitat and reduce the intensity of development for better water quality,” she says.

On the Same Team

For years Heart of the Lakes, the association of Michigan’s land conservancies and its partners, and the Michigan Recreation and Park Association, known as mParks, ran on parallel tracks. Both groups are organized similarly, with memberships made up of organizations rather than individuals. Both groups focus on improving the quality of life in their state through open space and recreational opportunities. Still, the two organizations collaborated only occasionally.

That changed when Jonathan Jarosz, executive director of Heart of the Lakes, and Ann Conklin, chief operating officer for mParks, met face to face. “After 15 minutes we looked at each other and asked, ‘Why didn’t we have this conversation years ago?’ ” says Jarosz.

Today the two organizations work together both on the details and on the big picture of the mission they share. At the hands-on level, each organization is an associate member of the other’s group. They found it easy to offer sessions at each other’s state conferences, so, for example, parks and rec agencies are exposed to land conservation concepts from Heart of the Lakes’ experts.

The most tangible benefit the collaboration makes possible is that mParks provides an office for a Heart of the Lakes staffer in its own offices near the state capital of Lansing. Heart of the Lakes’ two full-time staffers spend so much time on the road that investing a lot of resources in office space didn’t make sense, Jarosz says.

The two organizations have just started collaborating on an innovative effort to quantify the economic impact of parks and land conservancies on local communities. The toolkit they create will help local municipalities and land conservancies evaluate their direct economic impact as opposed to the economic ripples that their work creates.

“The practical application of policy research and economic impact research are what we are both after,” says Jarosz.

What has worked in Michigan can work elsewhere between land trusts and parks and rec agencies willing to work together toward their common mission. “We both understand the bigger picture,” says Conklin. “We are not worried about territories or defending our individual silos. At the end of the day, we are worried about what is best for the state of Michigan and its natural resources.”

The Game Plan

Find Your Champions

Whether in government or the community, there will be people who are behind your project from the start. Find them and make them your champions, says Jessica McDonald of the Greenbelt Land Trust.

Listen to the Community

Sure, they won’t always agree, says preserve neighbor Terry Miller, but not only will listening help you serve the community better, it will create allies for your project.

Know the Players

It can take effort to learn exactly who does what in a large parks and rec agency, says Andrea Vona of Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, but it’s worth it. Similarly, your knowledge of the land conservation world is valuable intel for those agencies.

Use Your Expertise

In addition to professional knowledge of grants, other fundraising and land conservation laws, you know what worked in other towns, counties or regions.

Acknowledge Complimentary Resources

“Most cities don’t have money to spend on parks and recreation. What we bring to the table is how we can leverage our grant dollars,” says McDonald. Jonathan Jarosz of Heart of the Lakes points out that once the deal is done, parks and rec agencies can often provide the ongoing funding required to maintain the site. Or they may provide staff or equipment.