LAND TRUSTS AID CAUSE OF CONSERVATION
Friday, October 20, 2000 Land trusts are the fastest-growing sector of the conservation movement, both nationally and in Southwest Washington. And more than 1,400 land conservationists, lawyers and conservation-minded landowners are meeting in Portland this weekend to share the secrets of their success in buying land to conserve it. Their organization, the Land Trust Alliance, has grown dramatically since its founding in 1982 and has 1,200 nonprofit member groups in the United States and overseas. Washington alone has 29 land trusts that have saved more than 27,000 acres from development. Land trusts reflect the philosophy that when it comes to protecting land, acquiring it through outright purchase from willing sellers or purchasing its development rights is more effective and less politically divisive than government regulation. That's why Glenn Lamb and other Vancouver-area conservationists formed the Columbia Land Trust 10 years ago. "While we realize there is a place for government regulation, that's not where the most productive and positive work can occur," Lamb said. "In my heart, I knew that landowners would be attracted to this idea. Republican or Democrat, landowners know and love their land. It has proven to be true again and again." Land trusts have made major purchases in Southwest Washington over the past two years, in part because federal, state and private money has become available to protect habitat for threatened salmon and steelhead. And more land purchases from willing sellers are in the works. Last March, the Trust for Public Land bought 35 acres at Lyle Point, on the Columbia River in Klickitat County, to protect a scenic and culturally important peninsula from imminent development. Near Willapa Bay, the Nature Conservancy of Washington has made the first purchases in a long-range plan to buy and manage an entire small coastal river drainage. The 5,000-acre Ellsworth Creek watershed harbors a healthy wild chum salmon run and ancient cedars that provide nesting habitat for threatened marbled murrelets. But the Columbia Land Trust, the new kid on the block, has one of the most impressive records. Two years ago, the trust expanded from a volunteer organization to one with a professional staff and expanded its operations from Clark County to the entire lower Columbia River region in both Oregon and Washington. Since then, its membership has swelled from 125 to 600, and it has more than doubled its land purchases to about 1,000 acres. The trust hopes to protect an additional 1,500 acres this year. "There is more land trust activity in this community than there is in Portland," Lamb said. Among its key achievements, the trust has won: The land trust is in line to get state salmon recovery money to buy and restore an additional 450 acres along Grays River. It is working with the town of Mosier, Ore., to get Oregon state money for buying the last unprotected waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge. A property owner is in the process of donating to the trust 150 acres appraised at more than $750,000 along both banks of the Wind River in Skamania County. And the trust expects to receive two other large land donations, each totaling more than 1,000 acres, in the near future. What accounts for this burst of activity? One explanation is that a lot of public money has been available to aid salmon recovery, Lamb said. Another is that more organizations have increased their efforts in Southwest Washington. "Ducks Unlimited has opened a Northwest office right here in Vancouver," he said. "Many of our grants are partnerships with them. We also have new partnerships with Audubon and the Nature Conservancy." Liz Bell, director of the Northwest office of the Land Trust Alliance, has taken notice of Vancouver's home-grown trust, calling it "a highly effective, mature organization that has become the major force in protecting valuable conservation land in the greater Columbia region."
By KATHIE DURBIN, Columbian staff writer
