Land Conservation by Jeff Glenn, North FL Trail Program Manager
Footprint
Summer/Fall 2020
Photo courtesy of Emily Griffith
maintain natural resources, historical sites, and public recreational areas for future generations. They may require that property owners give up some rights over land use and development since their goal is to protect these resources from development or other activities that may lead to disruption or pollution. Land trusts conserve all types of land: farmland or ranchland, forests, mountains, prairies, deserts, wildlife habitat, cultural resources such as archaeological sites or battlefields, urban parks, scenic corridors, coastlines, wetlands or waterways. It is up to each organization to decide what type of land to protect according to its mission. Many different strategies are used to provide this protection, including outright donation or acquisition of the land by the trust. In other cases, the land will remain in private hands, but the trust will purchase a conservation easement on the property to prevent development, or purchase any min-
ing, logging, drilling, or development rights on the land. Trusts also provide funding to assist like-minded private buyers or government organizations to purchase and protect the land forever. Easements can also grant access only and provide zero conservation value. An example of this is the trail section through Weyerhaeuser lands north of the city of Lake Butler. The trail is permanently protected where it is, meaning that it can never be forced out of that location, but the timber farm it passes through could be sold for development purposes all the same. A conservation easement is a legally binding agreement that halts the development rights on a property. The trust is tasked with ensuring the easement is enforced and, in some cases, managing the property. Conservation easements can be tailored so that the landowner retains ownership and usage rights—such as the right to continue farming or raising livestock—while still ensuring that the land remains undeveloped in perpetuity, which means that the terms of the easement remain in force even if the land is sold or passed to heirs. As non-profit organizations, land trusts rely on donations, grants and public land acquisition programs for operating expenses and for acquiring land and easements. Donors often provide monetary support, but it is common for conservation-minded landowners to donate an easement on their land, or the land itself. Some land trusts also receive funds from government programs to acquire, protect, and manage land. Altruistic donors do exist along the Florida Trail! A great example of this is along the Suwannee River near Bell Springs. The Opgenorth family donated a trail easement to the Florida Trail Association (FTA) many years ago, preserving a trail route connecting the trailhead to nearby Suwannee River Water Management District Lands. Another major example of government land acquisition programs is discussed in the following section about Camp Blanding. According to The Land Trust Alliance, a national organization that supports land trusts across the nation, there are more than 1,667 land trusts operating in every state of the United States with 29 accredited trusts operating in Florida. While there are many land trusts working hard to protect wild Flor-
Land Trusts and Their Role in Completing the Florida Trail
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he Florida Trail is diverse in many ways, and one of those is the breakdown and complexity of land ownership along the trail. Unlike many of our sister National Scenic Trails, the The Florida Trail (FT) crosses through dozens of land management units and even more private parcels. This ownership, while making the route unique, also poses a challenge: how to protect the trail in such a fragmented landscape. This is neither exclusive to the Florida Trail, nor to the rest of Florida in general, but something that is applicable to the country, if not the world. How is land protected, preserved, sustainably used, and treated with respect for future generations? One way is through organizations called land trusts. Land trusts are organizations that take legal ownership, stewardship, or partial control over property at the behest of the landowner. Conservation land trusts are tasked with the management of land to
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