|
Citizens
group wants Okanogan County residents to be aware of easement
small print
By K.C. Mehaffey World staff writer TWISP -- The Okanogan County Citizens Coalition thinks county residents need to know a lot more before selling conservation easements across their private property. Coalition secretary Bonnie Lawrence said her group is alarmed about the amount of funding coming into the county to purchase conservation easements across private property. Her coalition includes 6,000 members from 22 organizations dedicated to preserving multiple use of land and resources in the county. Lawrence said she wants landowners to hear what they're losing in addition to what they get from conservation transactions. "Nearly every conservation easement is in perpetuity," she said, so it impacts heirs or anyone else who might eventually buy the property. She said landowners are being offered only limited information from land trusts and agencies that promote conservation easements. Katharine Bill, stewardship director for Methow Conservancy, disagrees. She said conservation easements are one of the most valuable ways to conserve land for the environment while protecting private property ownership rights. Her nonprofit group received $1.3 million from the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board in January, and is now working with 21 landowners to buy development rights on riverfront land to help protect fish. All funds will go to landowners, and none toward administrative costs at Methow Conservancy, she said. The conservancy has also developed handbooks on building without disturbing surrounding nature, and what landowners can do to help protect fish, she said. "We're really trying to be a resource for the entire community," she said.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml] |