Dragonfly Pond

Jim, have you ever thought about placing a [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_easement"]conservation easement [/ame]on your land? You're already doing the right things so you might be eligible to recieve tax breaks and or federal money to do even more habitat upgrades while helping out your farm. Working with a land trust you can generally come to an agreement on the level of deed restrictions that suit both you and the one holding the easement. It is a great deal for those who want to do the right thing and recieve benefits.

 

I live in a county which was fast losing ranchland to developers. Ranching requires a minimum of ranches to support things like vets, hay delivery, milk truck runs, and all the rest of necessities of ranching. Rather than cross that minimum, the county has devised two outstanding conservation easement programs which helped ranchers stay in business, protects wide open spaces, limits development to existing urban centers, reduces pressure to develop ranchlands, keeps ranches in families which have owened them for generations, enhances the desirability of living in the county, reduces need for radical new infrastructure, and lots more. It's a win win for those ranchers choosing to lock up their ranches for future generations as well as for those fortunate enough to live here. It took decades of dedicated individuals to place the structure into motion, and a huge thanks to all involved. I get to live in a blindingly beautiful place with more than half of the county (just minutes from San francisco) protected by conservation easements, parks and open space. Occassionally a developer vacations here and purchases a large tract thinking he will simply make Marin look like so many other suburbs and get out with a fist full of money. Too bad these developers are so blinded by potential profits (and thinking they will pull the wool over the eyes of the CA 'fruits and nuts') they don't do their homework first and they soon discover themselves locked up in court battles for decades (google Sky Ranch for instance). They eventually go bankrupt, end up DONATING the land to the County Open Space Department in order to make the nightmare go away. It takes dedication, foresight, constant vigilance monitoring new loopholes, but we the participants who live and work here all benefit from conservation easements.

 

I agree 100% John but then again, that is what I do for a living. I work at a Land Trust.

There is something really gratifying about helping ranchers and farms keep their land while simultaneously preserving natural habitat for both endangered and common species.

 

awesome dude! it gave me an idea..

 

We established an easement on our land by our creek. Trouble is, it's not "worth" much as this part of our land is not able to be developed due to the presence of the creek. We're only to receive a tax benefit to the degree that we're giving up potential monetary income for development activity. Since there are expenses affiliated with the establishment of an easement, it's good to check into this ahead of time to see about the net effect.

I'm wishing for a day that these types of easements can be valued in a sense different than simply from a development/monetary gain aspect. We've implemented restoration throughout our creek by removing 2 feet of soil along with reed canary grass seeds and allowing for the channelized creek to return to its meandering habit creating a swale. This act alone will improve water quality, prevent further soil erosion and sediment deposits down stream and allow for improved water quality as the new plantings will remove pollutants from the water as it pools in the swale. It's really too bad we don't assign some sort of meaningful value to all of these benefits as we do those that bring monetary return. To us, it wasn't a matter of saving money on taxes but to others, this may be the difference between preservation of land or further land fragmentation.

 

I agree. For many though, the economics are all that make sense. To further exacerbate the issue, our governor just cut $27.7 million from the Williamson Act Program which provides money to counties that give tax breaks to landowners who keep their land as open space. Because the governor couldn't unilaterally abolish the program, he cut the budget to a token $1,000.

 

That's the silver lining of this depressed economy. That land that's no longer being protected due to lacking incentives probably won't be sold for development anyway. Hopefully when the economy turns around, so too will the budget for the Williamson Act.

In the area where we purchased our land, the land conservancy will actually purchase land adjoining private land with a condition an easement is placed on the adjoining private land. This is another means of incentive that can possibly be utilized in your area. Of course, maybe your Trust budget is suffering as well.

 

And to think this is the Arnold who, rather than face a fair election, waited for our last governor to win another term then Arnold ran a stealth recall campaign belittling/removing the duly elected governor and getting himself ensconced via the back door. The main platform for deposing the elected governor was his fiscal irresponsibility. Now, how much better have the Rs and their stealth governor done? Much worse than Mr. Deposed. BTW I LIKE Arnold and his politics, just not his method of takeover and not his fiscal policies which ON HIS SECOND term have bankrupted the state. Back to the Williamson Act: It is not a good idea to have a personally rich governor make budget cut decisions because the cuts he makes will affect him less due to the fancy places he can choose to live. These fancy places will be affected much less than poorer places he cuts from.