Conservation ramifications

The term, perpetuity, key to conservation easement contracts, guarantees that land will forever retain restricted use with the exception of that agreed upon by the property owner and the land trust. The holder of the land trust becomes the management agency with monitoring and supervisory authority enforced by law, while the property owner, holder of the title, assumes forever all costs of liability, taxes and maintenance related to the property. Prospective buyers of easement encumbered property must consider these financial obligations, as well as specified restricted uses such as development rights.

Heirs to the property, generally offspring of parents who signed the contract in perpetuity, must forever continue paying taxes, insurance and all expenses related to the land. They generally now live elsewhere with livelihoods other than farming or ranching. If they become financially unable to meet monetary obligations of inherited property they will likely seek disposal. The larger the acreage the fewer will be the potential buyers of land which cannot be subdivided and is limited in number and style of personal residences. Until this last legislative session it was reassuring that land trusts were willing to take encumbered land off the hands of financially strapped owners eager, if not desperate, to dispose of it.

Traditional real estate law extinguishes the CE contract when the entity holding the easement also becomes holder of the land and title. Senate Bill 317 passed by the last Montana state legislature and recently codified into law, amended previous law by no longer permitting this nullification of contract. Land trusts, (non-profit, non-taxpaying organizations), can no longer purchase encumbered land, thus freeing it of restrictions, only to sell or use it profitably. It also removes the avenue for owners seeking an escape from financial obligations assumed through inheritance or ill-advised purchase of encumbered land.

Alarming amounts of federal money is funneling into private land acquisition through CEs as well as programs to convert federal multiple use lands into wilderness, representing a federal °()()land grab°+/- epidemic nationwide. Appealing federal tax write-offs as well as monetary funding are offered land owners. These one-time-only perks are not available to future owners whether by inheritance or purchase. Highly heralded almost to the point of patriotism are the virtues of open space, wildlife protection and preserving rural lifestyle. The fact that property taxes at the local level remain the same, allows ever increasing amounts of acreage to go unnoticed under conservation easement, very likely to eventually erode into fallow, weed-prone, empty space. Unsaleable property falling to the county through tax default, in essence represents a liability, basically becoming parkland maintained by local taxpayers similar to our National Parks and increasingly non-productive Forest Service lands financed by federal taxes.

Please mark your calendar for an upcoming MFMU Conservation Easement Information Forum April 19, 1-3:30 p.m., at Crossroads Christian Church, north of Bigfork, Hwy 35 between Hwys 82 and 83.

Clarice Ryan

Board Member

Montanans for MultipleUse

Iraq and Constitutional Initative 100 (CI-100)

On March 19, 2008, the United States experienced its fifth year in the Iraqi Conflict. As of that date, the US has experienced the loss of 3,391 servicemen and women. As a retired military officer, every death and every casualty is a personal loss. Unfortunately, other than writing comments and carrying on dialogue with friends and acquaintances, there is nothing you or I can do about this war. The state of Montana has experienced the loss of ten of its finest young men. Each was laid to rest with dignity and full military honors, plus all the respect that their community could give.

Yet in this same timeframe, a war has been going on in the state of Montana in which 10,767 innocents have lost their lives. None of these children were buried with honor and dignity. Their names never appeared on the TV or were featured in the newspaper. They came from every county in the state. Most of our citizens never even knew they existed. This is a tremendous casualty loss in that Montana has the 44th largest population in the US. Imagine what it is like in the larger states.

This is a war that each resident of Montana can participate in. This is a war that each citizen can make a contribution to see that casualties are depreciated and ultimately stopped. Constitutional Initiative 100 (CI-100) affords each registered voter, an opportunity to go to Life2008.org and download a copy of the petition and the affidavit.

The name of each registered voter is one step closer to meeting the requirement of 44,615 total signatures. This is our war; these are our citizens being lost.

Jim Van Sickle COL (ret)

Stevensville