Walking the Berkshires

Yale Farm Golf Development Proposal Withdrawn

In an unexpected development in the more than six year saga over the potential development of a world class golf course in North Canaan and Norfolk, CT, the developers have withdrawn their application.  Citing the collapse of America's economy" , they said that  as “painful as it is to give up the fight (we came to quite enjoy it) it is the only prudent course of action. ” They conceded in a letter to the State DEP on Monday that a $25 million investment for the project “could no longer be justified.”

This has been a divisive plan since 2002 when a partnership of Slade Mead, representing the family members who inherited the 780-acre, 17 parcel property; David A. Tewksbury; and Roland A Betts decided to pursue the project.  Initially described as a membership community with associated residences, the eventual permits filed were only for the golf course.

The fight over the development of this property became bitter and partisan, with million expended in legal and design costs by the applicants and by interveners opposed to the project as excessive and needlessly detrimental to water quality and other conservation values.  For some it boiled down to landowner rights verses the interests of conservationists, who made several serious offers that were not accepted to buy out the developers and conserve the vast majority of the land in a limited development proposal.

The property could still be developed into as many as 34 approval not required lots, and there are five residences currently on the site.  The same economic factors that contributed to the non-viability of the golf course proposal also apply to large residential subdivisions in our area at the moment.  There is also considerable bad blood between abuttors and proponants of the golf development.  I believe that there still could be a financially attractive limited development conservation outcome, but only if those with site control wish to consider such a plan.  In the last paragraph of their withdrawal letter, the developers say:

"The Mead family has owned the Yale Farm property for over 90 years, Roland & Lois Betts have had a home in Clayton Corners for 27 years and David Tewksbury has had his home abutting the Yale Farm property for 16 years. All of us are keenly disappointed to have reached this conclusion. We all love the Berkshires. The permitting process is not without scars and strained friendships but the economy dictates that is time to turn the page."

Let us hope that the next chapter can include a solution that works for the owners of this property to meet their needs and is consistant with conserving its primary conservation values.  I am certain there is bitter disappointment, and not a little anger and frustration with the conservation community, but if the economy was the true rationalle for wirthdrawing the project, then perhaps another serious conservation proposal, regardless of who may be backing it, can be treated as business, rather than personal.

Dutchess Land Conservancy Receives LTA Accreditation

This would be no small achievement even for a large conservation organization, and for the Dutchess Land Conservancy is a real feather in their cap.  The voluntary acceditation is not administered by the IRS, as this article erroneously reports, but by the Land Trust Alliance as a self-regulatory mechanism to recognize land trusts that meet the highest standards in our industry.  DLC deserves full marks for earning this designation.

The Land Trust Alliance requires that its more than 1,600 member organizations nationwide agree to adopt LTA's overarching Standards and Practices as "guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust, which is run legally, ethically and in the public interest and conducts a sound program of land transactions and stewardship."  37 indicator practices within the S&P form the basis for accreditation, but it is a much more complicated task than merely agreeing to abide by these standards of governance.  There is an accreditation commission that provides independant verification and the process is long and involved.  Dutchess Land Conservancy is just the 55 Land Trust to receive accrediation since the the first two rounds in 2007 and 2008 were announced. 

The Dutchess Land Trust operates out of Millbrook, New York and since 1985 has conserved more than 30,000 acres, especially in the north and eastern sections of the county.  It has nine paid staff, a generous cadre of supporters, and is particularly skilled with Geographic Information Systems and at conserving land through the development process. It is a well established regional land trust with a strong local base.  Even with these resources, accreditation took a full year of very hard work.

There are many local land trusts, and even some larger ones, that would have a tough time coming up with all the documentation and the track record of compliance that this standard requires.  As long as it remains voluntary, some will choose not to seek accrediation because of the time and resources required.  There is likely to come a time when being accredited will be a grant stipulation and will force some land trusts to face some difficult decisions aboyut their long-term viability if they do not go for accreditation.  They will need extra capacity and outside resources to successfully complete the accreditation process.  Some will find those resources (and in my line of work, I hope the program I direct will be able to provide assistance).  Some may consider merging.  Some will stagnate and some will wither away, like the Mohegan Land Trust in Tolland, CT which is now dissolving. 

Dutchess Land Concervancy works in a county with only a handful of other land protection organizations. The Litchfield Greenprint, which covers an adjacent area of comparable size, has a local land trust operating in nearly every of the 27 towns it serves.  Over the years these entitities and various state and federal conservation entitities have in aggregate protected more than 20% of Litchfield County.  Some are clearly stronmger than others, but most have a clear identity and local mandate.  I would much prefer to see them stronger and working more closely together to raise the bar on what we can collectively aspire to conserve in this region.  Accreditation may be the wake up call that some of us need to pull together as well as to make our organizations as sound and effective as they can be.

Green Job Layoffs

The Nature Conservancy announced yesterday a 10% reduction in staff.  Last month, the Trust for Public Land laid off 15%.  I have good friends and former colleagues at each organization and I yearn for them.  I yearn for us all, because this economy spares no one.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports:

At least $32-million donors had expected to give through charitable remainder trusts, gift annuities, and other planned gifts are now on hold because of the economy, according to Angela Sosdian, the Nature Conservancy’s director of philanthropy for gift planning. That is equivalent to the amount such gifts typically produce in an entire year.

“There is long list of individuals who said they want to wait until the market turns around,” Ms. Sosdian said. “No one knows how quickly the market will rebound, and we don’t know what threshold donors are looking for to move forward.”

A 10% reduction in staff at TNC means close to 400 jobs.  If the past is any guide, it will hit land managers, administrative support staff, scientists and land protection professionals particularly hard.  These are the hard facts of business survival, and in most respects what is happening at these large Conservation non-profits is no different from losses in the for-profit sector of our economy.   I can say from personal observation that people who work for non-profits are often motivated by a strong belief in the mission of their employer.  For them it is not just a paycheck; it is significant and meaningful work.  There is more at stake for these people than their jobs or those of their friends.  Something core to their purpose and identity gets shaken as well.

It is difficult to make the transition from the non-profit to the for-profit world, but that is what many of these newly unemployed conservation professionals will have to do because there are hiring freezes and staff reductions throughout this sector.  Those who live and work in more remote locations (and I include myself in this camp) are unlikely to find a comparable job opening with another non-profit within even a long commuting distance of home, so it means selling and trying to get new financing in a down market as well.

Investing in the Green Economy is about more than retooling our economy to produce parts for windmills and squeezing fuel from what we can grow.  Heck, if you have any liquidity at all, buying land with conservation possibilities in my neck of the woods might get you a better return, if you can sit on it for a couple of years, than any other investment you might make.  

I hope my friends find good places to land.  You need your wits about you in times like these.

 

Recent Lakeville Journal Nature Notes Articles

My lastest Lakeville Journal article, readable on-line with free subscription, deals with the Housatonic River.  Fair use excerpt:

"

I drove along the Housatonic in the piercing cold of the New Year. The steam rising from the river glazed the trees on either bank in glistening sheaths of ice.  They call this phenomenon “sea smoke” in the Gulf of Maine, and it arises when water that is cold enough to kill an unprotected swimmer is still warm by comparison to the arctic January air.  

The cold streams and rivers of the Berkshires and Litchfield Hills can look like the Valley of 10,000 Smokes. At such times they reveal their kinship both to the urban vapors that rise from sidewalk grates when it’s Christmastime in the city, and to the midsummer wisps that settle in cool fens and seepage wetlands.

The Housatonic certainly seemed to be smoking as I drove past the paper mills on my way north. Not so many years ago, you could tell what color paper they were making by the stain of the water below the discharge from the mill. Massachusetts has some of the most progressive wetlands and river protection laws in the Northeast, but for most of our history we have treated the  waters as sewers for the excretions of industry and as convenient dumping grounds for the effluvia of human enterprise...."

The previous article, which ran on December 18th, was inspired by the birds of winter.

 

Pave It to Save It

These are the best of times and the worst of times for land protection.  On the one hand, real estate values have started to come down.  On the other, landowner expectations have not fully made that adjustment, and with credit tight and conservation dollars even more limited, we still do not have the resources we need to take more advantage of these conservation opportunities.  There are some bargains to be had if conservation investors have the liquidity to buy and hold land now to protect later, but many potential conservation buyers have seen their world erupt in flames and are still trying to get a handle on what to do with their remaining assets.  While there is another year left to run on the Conservation Tax Incentives passed by Congress in 2006, many folks have lost more than they can recoup even with these attractive deductions.

What to do?

Conservation development is an idea that has gained traction in some quarters, particularly in hot real estate markets where saving land through the development process is the only feasible means to keep what limited open space remains open.  Around the Litchfield Hills, it is generally recognized that there is far more land we need to conserve across this landscape than we can possibly protect using conventional means.  Whether through a buy / divide / restrict / resell approach or through actually working with developers to ensure that more than just the scraps get saved, we need to maximize the conservation options at our disposal to have a realistic shot at saving the farms, forests and watershed lands that support this region's ecology and the rural quality of life we value.

This is by no means a simple proposition.  In a soft market, making the numbers work with limited development on the development side can more difficult, yet no one wants a large number of unsold lots or houses in their inventories either.  Conservationists need a process to determine what aspects of a property can and should be saved, and which properties are appropriate and feasible to conserve with limited development.  The hardest conservation values to protect with limited development are those that have to do with historic or scenic character, though even here I believe there are cases when it can and should be possible.  It may prove, as Disney discovered with wetland mitigation in Florida, that it makes better sense for large developers to underwrite the conservation of large tracts of undeveloped land to offset what they build as a huge, one-time offset.  In an ongoing discussion over at Civil War Memory, I made the observation that Wal-Mart might be convinced to follow a similar approach to its pending development at a site within the (no-longer) Wilderness battlefield.

It may be impossible for the goals of historic preservation to coexist with a Wal-Mart superstore.  But maybe they do not have to try and occupy the same space.  If Wal-Mart is going to hold this ground, perhaps it and others like it could be motivated to secure other valuable territory to conserve the Battlefield, as well as adopt design features that address noise, traffic, screening and other green practices.  Preservation doesn't need to become another Lost Cause.

Green Copy

Two articles appear under my byline in this week's edition of the Lakeville Journal (readable on-line with free registration).  The first is my biweekly story under the Nature Notes column that greets readers on page 1 below the fold.

Old Stories, Written in Stone:  (Excerpt)

"...Many cemeteries are among the most significant green spaces in our urban regions.  Mt. Auburn Cemetery outside Boston is renowned as a major stopover for neo-tropical migrants on the Atlantic flyway as well as for being the premier example of the America’s rural cemetery movement and the design ethic that arose after 1830.  In the spring at Mt. Auburn, when the cherry and dogwood blossoms perfume the air, one may encounter dozens of warbler species in a single hour.

Because old burial grounds were managed differently than surrounding agricultural land, they often preserve rare plant species and natural community types that have all but vanished elsewhere.  One such graveyard in southeast Massachusetts preserves one of only a handful of known populations of sandplain gerardia, a globally rare plant that thrives only when its competitors are kept at bay through frequent mowing or fire.

Some of the only unplowed land in what was once Tallgrass Prairie is found in old Illinois pioneer cemeteries like the fictional one in Spoon River.  Untilled land retains the soil complexity and seed reserves required to sustain remnants of this once-pervasive habitat type, and even where prairie restoration efforts seek to reclaim old farmland, the resulting habitat is significantly less diverse than was the unplowed prairie. 

For these reasons, as well as their recreational value and the low odds that they will convert to other uses, the Litchfield Hills Greenprint Program (which I direct) treats rural cemeteries as permanently protected open space...."

The other was intended as a press release but got tagged with my byline.  I stand by what is written, but in the interest of full disclosure it relates directly to my professional work and to the CT State Committee of the Highlands Coalition of which I am co-chair.  It is all good conservation news, and recognizes the first use of federal highlands act funds to protect important places in Connecticut, but just so we are clear on the source ;-)

State, federal, local groups pull together to protect 300-acre DeLuca property in Cornwall, Falls Village:

(Excerpted quotes from the article)

"...Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Gina McCarthy said, “The acquisition of the DeLuca property was an especially important addition to the state’s open space holdings. This property expands on existing protected land in the area and aids our efforts to enhance the quality of the Housatonic River. The purchase was possible only with the financial support DEP received from the Cornwall Conservation Trust and the Federal Highlands Fund. This is a perfect example of the types of partnerships we need to build to succeed in meeting this state’s open space goals..."

“...The closing on this property represents the culmination of focused efforts at every level of government to achieve a gigantic victory for conservation” said state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30). “The cooperation that led to this success should be emulated at every opportunity as we continue working to keep Litchfield County the special place that it is.”

“Timing is everything” said Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway. “We were just lucky to have a motivated seller and that the state had the resources to put toward protecting this unique property.”

Falls Village First Selectman Pat Mechare said, “This acquisition by the state continues a conservation trend for the town of Canaan [Falls Village] of having one of the highest rates of land protection in the state.”

“CCT and its donors are delighted to have brought some local, private funds to this important project in the Housatonic watershed and are glad to be a part of a ‘first’ for the Highlands,” said Hector Prud’Homme, president of the (Cornwall Conservation) trust. “Whenever another opportunity arises, we will again join forces with public funding sources to protect precious open space for the benefit of future generations.”

I though Pat Mechare's statement managed to recognize the conservation achievement while also acknowledging its impact on a community that is 46% permanently protected open space, has only a handful of children in its kindergarten class, and the lowest grand list of any town in the County.  There was a time not long ago when one heard conservation land called in Falls Village "The Green Noose."  Now the town is a leader in a regional planning collaborative and looking for ways to protect what is special about the community while being fiscally responsible and looking especially to the need for more affordable housing.

Finally, I modified my recent Fall Forage post for the Nature Notes piece that ran two weeks ago under the same title:  More on feral apples and shaggy manes here.

Hurdle Cleared: Town of Wareham Voters Overwhelmingly Support Saving Windrock

Once again, the people have spoken. And once again, the citizens of Wareham, Massachusetts at their October TownMeeting have voted in numbers far exceeding the required 2/3 majority to use their Community Preservation Act funds to purchase a conservation interest in our family's "Windrock".  And on a night when it is blowing a gale and rattling the casements of this old house, I finally can exhale.  This was the big hurdle set before us by the selectmen when they declined to sign off on our Conservation Restriction last June, so now it goes back to them for their formal endorsement.  After that, it is a matter of settting a closing date and other due diligence, but realistically this could cross the finish line by Thanksgiving, and certainly before the New Year.  Yogi Berra be my guru, cause it ain't over 'til it's over, but once again it seems the end we have all worked so hard for is coming clearly in view.

Hanging Fire

The voters of the Town of Wareham met as a deliberative body at 7:00 last night and after 3 tortuous hours managed to complete discussion and vote on the first 10 articles on the Town Warrant.  Our's was the 11th, and because the good citizens of Wareham had had enough for a night, they failed to extend the meeting to cover the final two Community Preservation Act articles with the 2/3 majority needed to do so.  So instead of riding last night's trend of approving expenditures from this dedicated conservation fund when all other aspects of the Town budget are in smoking ruins, we are the first item to be discussed and voted on tonight.

Faced with driving home in the early morning hours without seeing this through to resolution, I elected instead to work from Windrock today and return to Town Meeting tonight.  The house is shut down for the season but warm enough inside not to require any heat.  There are dark gray rain clouds out across the bay and the air is cool and still.  There isn't much food in the house but I am not hungry.  May this day in the place we love grant me patience and clear eyes to see the way forward.

"Once More Unto the Breach": The Next Chapter in Saving Windrock

Tonight at its annual Fall Town Meeting, the voters of Wareham, Massachusetts will be asked to once again confirm their desire to see our family's land conserved using a dedicated source of municipal funding.  The warrant article "To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Community Preservation Funds, under the category of open space, $400,000 for the acquisition of a conservation restriction" on 19.55 acres of our property." differs from that which the voters strongly supported last year in that there is no possibility of regaining the state Self-Help Grant money which the Town leaders declined to use to protect our land last June when they unanimously rejected the conservation restriction at the 11th hour.  The full $400K, then, falls on the Community Preservation Act Funds of the Town, which can only be used for open space or recreation lands.  The money is there.  Will the voters be also?

We are the 11th item on the warrant and are not competing with a Red Sox world series game for voter turnout.  If it passes once again, then the only obstacle to our concluding this transaction and saving Windrock for future generations is the formal approval of the easement by 3/5 of the Select-board.  I will not hazard a guess as to how that might go, but I will be in the audience tonight to see the outcome of the Town vote firsthand.  I'd like to drive home in the wee hours tomorrow morning with a big smile on my face.  We shall see.  Meanwhile the full warrant as it appears before the voters - with the Finance Commitee's faint praise endorsement - is below.  I shall refrain from further comment until after the vote:

ARTICLE 11

To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Community Preservation estimatedannual revenues under the category of Open Space and Recreation, the amount of$400,000 for Phase II of the Great Neck Conservation Project; the acquisition of aconservation restriction with respect to approximately 19.55 (+/-) acres (a plan ofwhich, titled "Plan of Land Showing Conservation Restriction to be Created at GreatNeck Road- Assessor's Map 27, Lots owned by the Barker Family Trust, as described onAssessors Map 27, Parcels 1000 & 1009 in Wareham, Massachusetts (PlymouthCounty)," dated May 30, 2008, prepared for Robert H. Barker, Jr. by J.C. Engineering Inc., is on file with the Town Clerk), being a portion of a 33-acre parcel of land identified as Assessor's Map 27, Lot 1000 and described in deeds recorded with the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds in Book 9983, Pages 292 and 294, owned by the Barker Family Trust, such real property to be jointly under the care, custody and control of the Conservation Commission of the Town of Wareham and the Wareham Land Trust, a non-profit organization, and to be managed jointly by said Conservation Commission of the Town of Wareham and the Wareham Land Trust; and further to rescind the Town's vote under Article 26 of the October 2007 Town Meeting appropriating funds and authorizing borrowing for such purposes, or to do or act in any manner relative thereto. Inserted by the Board of Selectmen at the request of the Community Preservation Committee

OCTOBER 27, 2008 FALL TOWN MEETING WARRANT (CONT’D)

The Board of Selectmen Voted: Favorable Action 4-0-0

The Finance Committee Voted: Favorable Action 6-0-1

Explanation:

The intent of this article is to place a Conservation Restriction on 19+ acres which would be jointly under the care and custody of the Conservation Commission of the Town of Wareham and the Wareham Land Trust. The article further seeks to reverse the Town Meeting vote on Article 26 of the October 2007 Town Meeting.

The Finance Committee Recommendation:

The positive aspect of this article is that it would provide limited access to the area along designated paths and preserve it for future generations without development.

The negative aspects of this article is it will provide inadequate parkingspaces and joint control, but not majority control by the Town of Wareham.

Black and White and Read All Over

My first two articles moonlighting as a freelance journalist appear in today's issue of the Lakeville Journal (readable on-line with free registration).  One is a regular feature called Nature Notes that appears below the fold on page 1 that I write on weeks alternating with Fred Baumgarten.  The other covers the Open Forest Day held two weekends ago at Great Mountain Forest on Canaan Mountain.  A taste:

Of seeds and serpents Tim Abbott October, 09, 2008

This appears to be a mast year for oak trees, a time when there is a dramatic increase in acorn production. More small rodents will survive the winter after a mast year when food is plentiful, and that in turn could mean a bonanza for their predators in the coming spring.

I was musing along these lines while hiking in the mountains recently when I came upon two timber rattlesnakes.  Nothing sets the heart to racing quite like finding a fat-bodied pit viper, more than 4 feet long and thick as your forearm, lying beside the trail or coiled in your flower bed...

Sign up and read the rest of Nature Notes here and also the Great Mountain Forest piece here.