The Nature Conservancy

[MBlanchrd@aol.com]

Hi, Campers,

  If I may step into what may prove to be a mudslinging match...I've been a
member of The Nature Conservancy for years. Not as many years as I've been a
horseman, but years nevertheless.

  The agenda of the NC is to conserve tracts of land that, for one reason or
another, are in danger of being destroyed, developed or otherwise mutilated.
In most cases, the land has a distinction that makes it valuable..it may be
the last remaining habitat of an animal, bird, insect, or plant. It may be the
last stretch of open riparian (meaning riverside) that is home to trout,
salmon, etc. It may be the last stand of virgin trees, like redwoods, white
pine, white oak, whatever.

The Nature Conservancy doesn't buy land that's in the middle of a town that's
about to be malled to death..land like that is already lost, in the terms of
nature.

 A lot of times, the Nature Conservancy buys land that's been in the hands of
one family for years and years. The family can no longer afford the taxes on
the land, or the family is being besieged by damned developers who want to cut
down every tree on the place, pave it for another subdivision, strip mall, gas
station and video rental, and call the place "Woodland Estates".

 (Until you own land in a desirable area, you can't imagine the pressure you
get from developers who want to pay you a penny per acre and then turn around,
destroy it through developing, throw up some huge houses and charge 50K per
acre. If they can't get you to sell, they just grease a few legislative palms
and get the zoning changed from rural farmland to residential. Voil a,  you
are screwed out of your land AND your horses.).

 Or else, if all else fails, they build up around your land, so one day you
wake up and the only place to ride, without going onto the highways, is on
your land. It's like you're an oasis of green surrounded by miles of 'tar and
cement'.

   Unfortunately, as some have found, once the Nature Conservancy buys land,
it's THEIRS. They have the right, just like any other land owner, to say who
and what may come on what is legally private property. It's no different than
Weyerhauser owning vast tracts of forest (and cutting down public owned virgin
timber..they aren't going to cut THEIR trees.) or a rancher owning 100,000
acres and refusing to allow strangers onto his property. 

 Don't think of the Nature Conservancy as being some big, bad greedy
corporation headed by one landgrabbing meany. It's made up of hundreds of
people like me, who couldn't dream of owning property like that. But being a
member, I am allowed access to the land. Instead of vilifying the Conservancy,
why don't you become a member, and enjoy the access, too?  It costs, what,
about $25.00 a year to be a member.
I ride my horse on Nature Conservancy land..the only concession I've made is
that my horse is barefoot. A barefoot horse doesn't tear up the land like one
with shoes, though, personally, I don't think there's much damage done by shod
horses.

 Of course, part of the problem with landowners fencing people out of their
land is that so many people abuse the privilege. They bring their dogs and
allow them to roam freely, they camp and park huge rigs on forest soil,  burn
firewood, poach the wildlife, leave their junked out cars, leave their
garbage,  etc. Natural habitat can't take much abuse like this before it
becomes just another muddy gymnasium under the trees. 

 OK, flame away...
Michelle