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Business North - Around The Region - Duluth & Superior Newspaper
Forestland conservation easement intersects sustainable community, economic development
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8/17/2010 by Catherine Conlan |
A July agreement to protect almost 188,000 acres of forested Minnesota land was more than 10 years in the making, and participants say it’s an excellent example of the intersection between a sustainable community and economic development.
“This is an historic project,” said Tom Duffus of the Conservation Fund, one of the organizations that helped facilitate the deal. “It’s a win all around. It’s good for the economy, it’s good for ecology and it’s good for the community.”
The land was owned by Finland-based UPM, which sold a “conservation easement” to the Department of Natural Resources. UPM received $44 million for the easement and still owns the land It will be used as a “working forest” for its Grand Rapids paper mill, but the easement gives people recreational access in perpetuity. Under the deal, the land cannot be divided or developed.
It’s the eighth-largest working forest easement in the country, Duffus said, and the largest in Minnesota. It represents a reversal in the trend of parcelization or land fragmentation often seen in forestland management.
Around 30 years ago, Duffus said, paper companies were selling off their land base to investment firms. As those firms began dividing up the parcels and reselling them to developers, people came to realize they no longer could treat them as “public.”
Some chunks were posted “no trespassing,” some were sold off into developments or to individual landowners, and sustainability was lost.
“There was less land available, there was less control by the industry, and lands were managed for the short term, such as 10-12 years, instead of for 100 years. A forest resource is cultivated over the long term,” Duffus said.
With every jump in the housing or recreation home market, he said, more land was subdivided, and landowners demanded roads, power and other services be brought out to their properties.
“Some landowners are willing to manage their land and forest, but most of them, not so much,” Duffus said. “It makes a huge impact into the forest available for a forest-products economy.”
Joe Maher, general manager of the UPM Blandin Mill in Grand Rapids, agreed.
“It’s hard to manage the forest as it wants to be managed if everyone owns a little piece of it,” Maher said. “There’s a lot of threat to the forests with conversion from forestland into housing or recreation ... and I’m really proud to work for a company that chose this route instead of choosing other alternatives.”
In the late 1980s and early 90s, Duffus said, there was a concerted effort on the part of forest product companies and environmental groups to develop tools to deal with land fragmentation, with a big push coming from the New England states. Nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits began to explore the possibilities of selling a conservation easement.
Under a conservation easement, the land has a permanent restriction against development and subdivision. It requires public access and must be managed sustainably. The land is still owned by UPM, but the easement gives the public the right to use it for hunting, fishing and other recreation on existing trails.
“Rather than buy lands for the public and taking it off the tax rolls, it keeps land in private hands, with private management...dedicated to sustainable forestry and open to the public,” Duffus said. “It’s win-win-win.”
According to the Land Trust Alliance, headquartered in Washington, D.C., about 6.2 million acres were protected by local and state land trusts throughout the country using easements between 2000 and 2005 (the alliance publishes the census every five years; the one looking at 2006-10 will be released next year). Coastlines, farmland, waterways and other types of land, including working forests, were included in the easements.
The Minnesota Legislature appropriated money to purchase the easement through the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, which was approved by Minnesota voters in 2008.
“It’s the first big project to be funded” through the Legacy Amendment, Duffus said. “When you think about this magnitude, this is what people had in mind when they voted for it. It protects jobs of those who work in the woods, it’s located in the Upper Mississippi watershed, it’s got extraordinary habitat, and great public access. There’s no other ownership like this that’s out there.”
Rob Aldritch, communications director of the Land Trust Alliance, said a “confluence of things” is making the public and other organizations more aware of the potential of conservation easements.
“They’re more popular, more deals are being done, and you see it catching on,” he said. “After the easement legislation was really solidified, we’ve seen easements increasing exponentially. As there are bigger incentives from the government and land trusts become more sophisticated and funders realize the value of these easements, bigger deals are being put together.”
States facing their own money crunches might put a damper on some easement deals, but Aldritch said it’s still a strong option.
“Some states like California are having a hard time meeting their obligations...and it may slow down a bit, but it’s still a lot cheaper than buying the land outright. It has a lot of value because it’s a public/private collaboration. We hear from communities that the demand for more conservation is not lagging with the budget - even though budgets are tight, people see the need to keep conservation active.”
Catherine Conlan is a Two Harbors-based freelance writer.
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