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Glenrose landowner grants conservation easement - Land trust will ensure seven acres is preserved
Spokane, WA - 10/26/02 - Joan Smith of Glenrose Prairie remembers the first time she spied her home 30 years ago. She instantly fell in love with the seven-acre spread -- its natural splendor and the expansive view of Mount Spokane in the background. She wants to see its beauty preserved for future generations. "It's like a little sanctuary here," she said. "It is a healing place." Smith recently granted a conservation easement on the property to ensure that it will not be developed in the future with homesites. The conservation easement was granted to the Inland Northwest Land Trust, which in turn will take on the responsibility of seeing the easement honored in perpetuity. Smith joins her neighbors, Channing and Jane Bowen, who granted a similar conservation easement on an adjoining parcel three years ago. Now, the two properties comprise 15 contiguous acres of protected land along Cherry Lane just south of Glenrose Road at the north end of the prairie. "I think it's a real boost for Glenrose," said Chris DeForest, executive director of the land trust. Smith has been a longtime member of the Glenrose Community Association and an activist in saving the rural character of this old farming community. The association has sought to prevent overdevelopment. "I have never stopped loving Glenrose because of its beauty," she said. "I'll do anything to protect it." Smith's 1906 home originally was a summer farmhouse owned by a Spokane banker along the former Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad. When she and her late husband bought the home 30 years ago, it was an active chicken farm with 14,000 of the birds. "We had to become chicken farmers," she said. A metal barn stands prominently in a grassy field along the tree-lined drive to Smith's home. In seeking the conservation easement, Smith said, she spoke with her children, who agreed to her decision. She specified in the easement that the land could be used for agriculture, a home business or a bed and breakfast. It cannot be divided into individual homesites, even though the property was at one time platted with 13 lots. In granting the easement, Smith made a $3,000 contribution to the stewardship endowment fund of the land trust, which is used to manage the easements into the future. Landowners are asked to make the contribution, but money is available from donors if a landowner is unable to pay the stewardship contribution, DeForest said. In exchange for easements, landowners may be eligible for income tax and estate tax benefits, and may qualify for reduced property taxes if the land is designated for farming, timber production or open space. The land trust has acquired 12 easements in the Spokane area since 1991. "In a way, I feel like I am keeping my money where my mouth is," she said of her conservation ethic. Smith believes open space with an adjacent trail system should be considered a crucial community asset. "This is what we need as people to keep us sane," she said. |