Controversy at The Conservancy

By John Milne on Friday, May 23, 2003.

listen:

OFFICIALS OF THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ARE DEFENDING THE INTEGRITY OF THE NATION'S WEALTHIEST ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATION.

EARLIER THIS MONTH, THE WASHINGTON POST RAISED QUESTIONS ABOUT SOME OF THE CONSERVANCY'S NATIONAL LAND-ACQUISITION POLICIES.

THE POST SERIES, TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING, DID NOT MENTION NEW HAMPSHIRE TRANSACTIONS.

BUT CONCERN IS RIPPLING THROUGH THE STATE'S SMALL COMMUNITY OF CONSERVATION PROFESSIONALS.

THEY WORRY THAT THE NATIONAL DEBATE COULD LEAD TO LIMITS ON THE LEGAL TOOLS USED TO PROTECT THE LANDSCAPE.

NHPR CORRESPONDENT JOHN MILNE REPORTS.

Daryl Burtnett is The Nature Conservancy’s state director. Every day he must deal with the compromises that make conservation possible.

He says the Post articles, which identified insider transactions and other possible abuses, have been reprinted in New Hampshire newspapers. But Burtnett says there’s been little public outcry. Nature1 (35 seconds) Mostly I’ve gotten encouragement from the leaders of other organizations, some concern that some of the practices that many of us are dedicated to preservation of the natural landscape use, like conservation buyer transactions or easements in general, there’s some concern that the way the Post portrayed them, it could undermine peoples’ belief that they’re a good tool.

The national Nature Conservancy has suspended several of its practices, including the conservation buyer transactions. These deals allow an interested party to buy a tract of land to protect some areas and use others.

The Washington Post reporters found that The Nature Conservancy was offering to sell these tracts to its trustees and donors at favorable prices. In a few cases, conservation buyers were allowed to build mansions on rare, valuable land.

Out of 120-thousand acres the organization has protected in New Hampshire, the conservancy’s largest deal – 19 thousand acres – involved a conservation buyer. It is, in fact, the largest private conservation purchase in New Hampshire history.

Ten thousand acres of that tract were set aside to honor Vickie Bunnell, the judge and conservationist slain in 1997.

Right now the Bunnell nature preserve, in Columbia and Stewartstown, doesn’t look like much, mostly hills and young trees. The acreage was logged heavily and repeatedly within the last decade.

But these acres link up to the Nash Stream State Forest. As the trees grow and the canopy spreads, the area can protect pine marten … lynx … and spruce thrush.

The conservancy had identified the land as important to preserving biological diversity. The conservancy bought the land, paying 3-point-8 million dollars. That’s a little over 200-dollars an acre, with money coming from donations … federal forest preserve funds … and the conservation buyer. Daryl Burtnett:

Nature2 (35 seconds)
In that case, out of the 19,000 or so – just less than 19,000 acres, we sold 8,900 acres to a family that wanted to have a timber investment in New Hampshire. (The family was from Maryland.) And they also were willing to accept the easement restrictions that we were going to put on – we did put on – for transferring the acreage. And they wanted to hold out the possibility of building one house or even two houses on a small part of that property.

That ‘small part’ was about 98 acres, and the limit was a total of 6-thousand square feet for both houses. Three thousand square feet is roughly the size of one of those big 19th century houses found in a typical New Hampshire town.

Limits in the conservation easement restricted forestry practices on the land and encouraged protection. No structure could, for example, be within 300 feet of the trickle of a stream called Hymmel (Him’-ul) Branch.

Because the conservation easement restricted the use of that land, Burtnett says the buyer from Maryland paid about $115-dollars an acre. That’s a little more than half the price the conservancy paid. But Daryl Burtnett says the owners won’t be able to retrieve the full market value.

Nature3
If we put an easement on it that says you can only put one, and it’s in the least sensitive part of the property, that’s going to dramatically reduce the value of the property yes.

The Maryland family got, arguably, a bargain. National Conservancy officials described them as wealthy and reclusive, making small donations to the organization but not officers or trustees. Burtnett said the transaction was well along before he discovered this relationship.

But no matter how carefully structured a transaction is, most New Hampshire residents are surprised to find housing permitted on conservation land. Ray Burton, the North Country’s executive councilor, says most debates are over preserving woodland jobs on protected land as well as public access and recreation. Nature3a That’s what those lands are purchased for, to protect them, so to speak, from housing development and other commercial enterprises occurring on those lands.

Land use experts say, however, that most conservation organizations in the state will include housing provisions in conservation transactions. They are infrequent on the state level.

Ed Jensen is a U-N-H land use professor and a Rollinsford selectman. He says there are human impulses leading to people preserving land and at the same time living on it.

Nature 4
They are willing to take off the development rights but they don’t want to preclude the opportunity for their own children or grandchildren to be able to continue living in the area.

Paul Doscher is senior land manager for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. He argues that people who live on the land take better care of it than an absentee landlord:

Nature 5
The guy or woman who lives there develops a real interest in the property, gets to know it real well, does their own careful TLC forest improvement or wildlife management, and you can see some remarkable things happen when people take that kind of interest in their land.

In the last century, New Hampshire’s green hills and golden ponds were protected with gold. Wealthy summer residents protected Squam Lake by simply buying up all the lake shore. Public access was permitted only in recent years.

Today’s conservationists acquire land that is more rare and carries higher prices. Land managers like the Nature Conservancy’s Daryl Burtnett must also become money managers: Nature6 We want to make sure that we steward the donations that we get from individuals, foundations, in a way that maximizes the protection of biodiversity. So we’ve got to target those resources in the way that makes the biggest possible difference.

That’s why the conservancy is taking the Washington Post reporting so seriously. In order to protect biodiversity, the Nature Conservancy has to preserve its own credibility.

For N-H-P-R News, I’m John Milne