Thursday, February 11, 2010

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed



I missed a day of blogging and today has been crazy as well so this post is late. Yesterday Utah Open Lands added a new board member which is a phenomenon that never ceases to amaze me. Board members volunteer their time, raise money for the cause, take on weighty issues and even delight in doing this. Running through the expectations Utah Open Lands has for our board of directors, I was awestruck by the collective good will of the Utah Open Lands board of directors. This new board member didn't even flinch. He thanked myself and the other board members for the opportunity to serve this cause.

The phone rang towards the end of the day. The call was from a landowner who has over 1500 acres of land. He was interested in a preservation solution. When I began this work 20 years ago, I remember many doubting that landowners would be interested in preserving their land and some even questioning if this was an affront to private property rights. In reality, conservation easements are one of the only ways that a landowner can exercise their private property right to preserve their land.

As with every property UOL protects the process of preservation takes time. It takes a commitment to a vision of the land focused on the conservation values, and the best way to ensure the protection of those values. For the landowning family often it is a commitment to a land legacy that has been passed from one generation to the next where the connection to the land is a connection to family, place and community.

Today, I reached out to a previous board member who has a tremendous expertise when it comes to conservation easements. As always she responded right away providing answers to my questions with the thoroughness I had come to expect from her when she was on the board and hopefully I always remember not to take for granted. Tonight I will read up on some tax cases.

One acre at a time. Our constant commitment is this responsibility, this investment that we all make in our quality of life, recognizing that saving a critical landscape to day, may be priceless to the quality of life for future generations

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