Donald Campbell, the Southwest Regional Director for the Vermont Land Trust, pickle-maker enthusiast, and Williams College alum, provided his log lunch audience with his version of “Land Trusts 101” on April 5th.
Land Trusts are meant to preserve land for society’s future needs, in terms of community and economy, thereby preserving traditions of working the land. The Vermont Land Trust (VLT) currently owns 8.9% of the land in Vermont.
How is this land used? Most of the time in Vermont, the answer is farming. Landowners sell the VLT a conservation easement, which requires the landowner to comply with a particular set of land use rules. Restricted uses include no new houses, billboards, mining, dumping, or rights of way. Permitted uses include outdoor recreation, agricultural forest management, and camping or minor structures.
When land comes under these restricted uses, it loses its value. Land with development rights generally costs twice as much as land without development rights. Therefore, after a farmer buys a piece of land, she can sell a conservation easement to the Land Trust, which will reimburse her for forgoing the development rights. The farmer is paid to continue the practice of farming.
The VLT Farmland Access Program is paying a lot of attention to new and diverse farms. They help the next generation of farmers with business planning and long-term productive use of farmland. Campbell hopes that “people with good ideas and ambition will step forward.”
A troubling aspect of conservation easements is that they last in perpetuity, meaning that when the land changes hands, the new owners must continue to comply with the same set of rules. Discussing the abstract and arrogant nature of this ruling, Campbell asked, “Who died and made us God? We have the hubris to make these easements right now. I don’t know how that’s going to work out.”
For now though, the VLT has a list of 200 hopeful next generation farmers planning to take advantage of the conservation easement program, to buy a patch of land in Vermont and begin to cultivate.
Written by Claire Lafave ’12, CES Research Assistant