Fall 2013 - Pennsylvania Land Trust Association

Fall 2013
Get Outdoors PA: Connect & Inspire Your Community
ClearWater
Conservancy
does it. So
does Countryside Conservancy. Wildlands Conservancy has been doing it for decades.
Land trusts across Pennsylvania are not just providing conserved places to visit but are actively engaging people in outdoor activities such as hiking,
kayaking, bird watching and more.
Get Outdoors PA makes it easier for land trusts to
develop and market their outdoor programming.
Get Outdoors PA has been around for years, offering thousands of recreation programs in Pennsylvania’s state parks and forests. Now the program is
expanding to include private, county and municipal programs.
Get Outdoors PA flagship partners, Department
(Continued on page 2)
Ellen Ferretti Named Acting DCNR Secretary
Ellen Ferretti will serve as the acting secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources (DCNR) following the resignation of Rick Allan. Ferretti has served as Deputy Secretary for Parks and
Forestry since June 2011.
Prior to joing DCNR, Ferretti served as the vice president of the northeast
regional office of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council; director of Environmental Resources at Borton-Lawson Engineering; project manager at
Westinghouse Environmental and Geotechnical Services, Inc.; and was a
former board member of North Branch Land Trust. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Science/Biology from Wilkes College in Wilkes-Barre.
“I’ve spent many years working with the land trust community in Northeastern PA and look forward to now working with the Pennsylvania Land
Trust Association (PALTA) and all the land trusts across the Commonwealth.
Not only is the work of the land trust community so valuable, but the commitment of everyone involved, from staff to volunteers to landowners who want to conserve their land
- it is inspiring! I applaud PALTA for the valuable work they do and look forward to meeting all of their
members.”
“The purpose of conservation: the greatest good to the greatest number of people for the longest time.”
- Pennsylvania Governor, Gifford Pinchot (1923-1927, 1931-1935)
Get Outdoors PA (cont’d)
of Conservation & Natural Resources, Pennsylvania
Fish & Boat Commission, Pennsylvania Recreation
& Park Society and the Pennsylvania Land Trust
Association encourage land trusts to participate
and become community partners. Whether the
land trust offers just one or many events a year, Get
Outdoors PA can help.
Benefit from technical resources
in the Partner Portal!
The GetOutdoorsPA.org website makes it easy for
Get Outdoors PA partners to market outdoor events
to the public. Individuals coming to the site simply
choose the activity(s) and location(s) and they’re
one click away from enjoying the great outdoors.
The Partner Portal at GetOutdoorsPA.org provides resources to organizations wanting to enrich
outdoor programming and expand outreach in the
community. In addition, an online networking tool
connects outdoor program administrators with one
another so that they can share resources and ideas.
“In partnership with Get Outdoors PA, we’ll
expand our reach to create many more meaningful
connections between the community and nature.
Advertise your outdoor programs
and events at GetOutdoorsPA.org!
- Chris Kocher, President
Wildlands Conservancy
Get Outdoors PA partners can expect to receive
special visibility when applying for DCNR grant
programs.
Wildlands Conservancy has long been serving
the Lehigh Valley with outdoor programs such
as nature walks, river sojourns and nature-based
education.
As a Get Outdoors PA community partner, Wildlands will, with little additional effort, expand its
marketing reach and share its knowledge and best
practices with other organizations.
Chris Kocher, President of the Wildlands Conservancy, explains, “In partnership with Get Outdoors
PA, we’ll expand our reach to create many more
meaningful connections between the community
and nature. Together, we’ll inspire generations to
care for and appreciate our region’s irreplaceable
natural resources.”
Connecting children and adults to nature is a logical priority for land trusts. Connecting children, in
particular, to nature is a great opportunity for land
trusts to build relationships with future stewards.
After all, it is the future landowners, farmers, donors, volunteers, conservationists that will continue
this work.
Becoming a partner is simple. Learn more and
complete the online application at GetOutdoorsPA.
org.
So, advance your mission, improve your outreach, and become a Get Outdoors PA partner!
Learn more by visiting GetOutdoorsPA.org or contact Nicole Faraguna (717.909.1298 or nfaraguna@
conserveland.org.)
ConserveLand
Page 2
PALTA Welcomes New Board Directors and Officers
In April, PALTA membership elected three new directors to the PALTA Board:
Sherri Evans-Stanton, Director of
Brandywine Conservancy’s Enviromental Management Center, and Past
PALTA President rejoins the board.
Thomas Daniels, Professor at
University of Pennsylvania, is a
first-time board member.
D. Andrew Pitz RLA, Executive
Director of French & Pickering Creeks
Conservation Trust, is a PALTA founding board member and past president.
In June, PALTA’s board elected new officers:
Paul Lumia, Executive Director
of the North Branch Land
Trust, was elected President.
Jeffrey Marshall, President of
Heritage Conservancy, was
elected Vice-President.
Tom Saunders, President of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, was re-elected Secretary and John Conner of
Manada Conservancy was re-elected Treasurer.
Check out the Latest Guidance at
A purchase option assures the option holder of the right to purchase property at a certain price within a certain time period but
without an obligation to do so. The tool is widely used in business transactions and likewise is highly applicable to many conservation projects, including land, conservation easement and trail easement acquisitions.
To call attention to the conservation strategies enabled by purchase options and to help organizations apply the tool to their work, PALTA has published two new resources at ConservationTools.org:
1.
Purchase Options: Gaining the Right Without the Obligation to Acquire Property Interests Guide
2. Model Grant of Purchase Option Guide with Commentary (draft). Published for peer and public
review, the draft is well developed and suited for use. PALTA urges interested people to review the draft and
submit comments by October 15 to Andy Loza at [email protected] to help PALTA deliver the most
helpful first edition possible.
Fall 2013
A Conversation with Conservation Attorney, Patricia Pregmon
What led you to become a conservation attorney?
A. Serendipity. The firm I joined
in 1981 after graduating law
school, Duane Morris, had a client,
Natural Lands Trust, interested in
pursuing donations of conservation
easements qualifying for federal tax
benefits under the then rather new
tax code provisions. I, the novice,
was the only real estate attorney
who had at least a passing acquaintance with conservation easements.
Several years earlier, my family and
I were visiting friends on a farm in
Chester County on a hot summer’s
day. While we were wading in the
creek, I learned that the farm was
part of a larger tract protected by
something called a conservation easement. I remember this
vividly because I was fascinated by the concept (although
not very clear about how it worked). When I was given
the assignment for Natural Lands Trust, there was almost
no guidance (other than the regulations) on what a grant
of conservation easement was supposed to look like, what
a “qualified conservation contribution” was supposed to
contain, or exactly how it would work. But I was hooked -developing something new from the ground up appealed to
me then and still does now.
What does conservation mean
to you?
A. Let’s start with what it does not
mean and that is the vain attempt of
the human species (and its subspecies, lawyers) to keep every aspect
of a real property exactly as it is at
a certain moment. The natural environment is not static. I’ve always
admired how conservation professionals can look at a woodland, for
example, and see what it was and
what it is becoming. Conservation,
to me, is valuing natural areas
for their past, present and future
contribution to the health and
well-being of all living things. The
purpose of conservation is to maintain or achieve those values through
a variety of strategies. The strategies may change but the
conservation values remain fixed.
The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association
invites members to use the PALTA Member
Logo on their websites and in print materials to
show support for best conservation practices and
increasing the pace at which Pennsylvanians
conserve their special places and landscapes
Shaped by six cycles of practitioner review and continuing user feedback, no easement document in the
nation has undergone greater public scrutiny and
testing than PALTA’s Model Grant of Conservation
Easement. As the principal author, what have you
learned in the development of this resource?
A. First, that it was a brilliant idea (unfortunately, not
mine) to have the document and commentary freely available online to any and all users. Second, collecting and
responding to user comments and questions have improved
and will continue to improve the document. No printed
form will ever be as flexible and responsive to criticism as
our online model. Third, I think we hit on the right concept
of creating a model that was intended to be a platform to
be adapted in a limitless variety of ways. Each easement
holder has its own preferences. Each eased property is
different. The commentary is the vehicle intended to guide
changes to the model. When we started the project, I had
.
Find this and additional partner logos
at ConserveLand.org/memberlogo
How would you describe conservation easements to
a non-lawyer who has no prior knowledge of them?
A. A conservation easement is the grant of a power to
block land uses harmful to the woodlands, fields, soils,
streams, wetlands, fish, wildlife or scenic resources of the
property. Future building on the land is managed to minimize adverse effects on these natural and scenic resources.
ConserveLand
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Continued from page 3
no idea that the commentary would grow to a book-length
document. The first drafts had the commentary as little
bubbles of text interspersed into the document.
You have seen hundreds of conservation projects.
What makes a project particularly interesting or
challenging to you?
A. I like puzzles. Projects with a number of stakeholders, all with their own objectives and concerns, are always
interesting to me because, to come up with an acceptable
solution, you need to analyze individual needs, mediate
competing interests, and create a structure that brings
them together into a whole. Many times I find that the solution to the puzzle is derived from strategies I’m familiar
with from the non-conservation world: balancing competing interests of commercial lenders funding a development
project or sorting out the priorities of private and public
funding sources in tax credit transactions.
my conservation writing (unless its freezing) on my back
deck listening to the birds and observing the trees stirring
from time to time. The woods have been the playground for
our children and grandchildren. I love playing explorer, or
archaeologist, or paleontologist back there with my grandchildren just as I did with my girls when they were little.
There’s nothing better than to watch children explore nature by themselves. I’m an avid gardener and grow lots of
herbs and vegetables, which the rabbits and squirrels enjoy.
Until Sandy hit last year, we retreated on weekends to a
wonderful spot in New Jersey that was almost surrounded
by the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge -- great birding
(ospreys, eagles, herons and other shore birds) and kayaking. We had a little beach where horseshoe crabs and turtles
came to lay their eggs. The whole family, grandchildren
included, enjoy fishing. Almost every vacation I’ve ever
taken was to a place with great fishing -- Kodiak island,
Queen Charlotte sound, northwestern Quebec, Costa Rica,
Florida keys. Do I enjoy the outdoors? You bet.
What do you feel are the greatest challenges that
Pennsylvania land trusts face, legal or otherwise?
A. This is really difficult to answer because I truly believe that we are blessed here in Pennsylvania. Our land
trusts take their easement management responsibilities
very seriously. They have available to them the invaluable
support and guidance of the Pennsylvania Land Trust
Association.
Nevertheless, no one can overlook that there is increasing competition for scarcer resources. Just like businesses
during the economic downturn, we need to look at how
we do our work and think of ways to do it more efficiently
and effectively. I believe the model conservation easement
and other model documents have brought down the cost of
document preparation. I’m working now on a guide looking into the relationships of multiple easement holders and
easement beneficiaries. It has caused me to think about the
ways land trusts could partner with each other so as not
to duplicate efforts but recognize each other’s strengths. I
think this may be a viable path to allow smaller, often local, land trusts to survive on a limited budget.
How do you enjoy the outdoors?
A. Both my husband and I are outdoors people. We built
our house in the woods along the steep slopes known as
the Wissahickon gorge portion of Fairmount Park. The
woods and its wildlife (fox, coyote, deer) and birds (song
birds, screech owls, hawks and the occasional eagle) have
been a key focus of our lives for many years. I do most of
Fall 2013
Peter Hausmann Honored
The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association honored
Peter Hausmann of Chester County with the Lifetime
Conservation Leadership Award at its awards dinner in
State College on April 5th.
Hausmann served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees
of the Natural Lands Trust for the past 13 years. During
his tenure, the organization preserved more than 35,000
acres of open space, the most productive period in the
organization’s sixty-year history. He is also a founding
Trustee of the Willistown Conservation Trust.
From left to right: PALTA Board Directors Sherri Evans-Stanton, Renee’ Carey, and Molly
Morrison; Peter Hausmann; and PALTA Executive Director, Andy Loza.
Peter was at the forefront of Chester County’s open
space preservation efforts beginning in the late 1980s. In 1989, he helped to found and chaired Save Open
Space, a citizens’ group that successfully shepherded the county’s pioneering open space bond issue.
He is a former board member and real estate committee chair for The Nature Conservancy’s Pennsylvania
Chapter and former board member of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, the Green Space Alliance,
and 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania.
Ever concerned about the long-term sustainability of the land trust movement, Peter lent his talents to
the Land Trust Alliance from 2007 to 2009, where, as Chairman, he oversaw the launch of the Alliance’s
ground-breaking accreditation process and was a leading advocate for the development of the Terrafirma
Risk Retention Group - a charitable risk pool designed to insure member land trusts against the legal costs of
defending easements.
“Peter Hausmann isn’t a household name. But it should be for those in metropolitan Philadelphia,” asserted
Andy Loza, executive director of PALTA. He cited Chester County in particular: “In the coming decades,
when residents and visitors enjoy the county’s parks and protected open spaces, there’s a big chance that they
owe their joy in part to the work of Peter Hausmann.”
PALTA Honors Buckingham Township
The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association honored Buckingham Township
(Bucks County) with the 2013 Government Conservation Leadership Award for
demonstrated leadership in conserving special landscapes and natural resources.
The Township became a real development hotspot within Bucks County in the
mid-1980s. Buckingham addressed this challenge by establishing a voter-approved
open space program early on and renewing the program through two subsequent
bond measures. This has enabled the Township to have significant funds available on a consistent basis in order to seize opportunities to preserve large and key
parcels of lands when they become available.
Andy Loza, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association,
stated, “I commend Buckingham Township’s proactive and steadfast approach to
land use planning and land conservation; the township’s leadership has enabled
this community to protect its treasured landscapes and preserve its quality of life.”
From left to right: PALTA Executive Director, Andy Loza and Maggie Rash, Township
Supervisor and Chairman.
The award was presented Saturday, April 6th in conjunction with the 11th Annual
Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference in State College, Pennsylvania. Maggie
Rash, Township Supervisor and Chairman, accepted the award on behalf of the township.
ConserveLand
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21 Land Trusts Now Accredited in Pennsylvania:
PALTA Congratulates the 3 Most Recently Accredited
Pennsylvania’s three newest accredited land trusts have made significant investments in their organizations that -- as organizationl leaders testify below -- have
made them stronger, more efficient and more effective.
E.L. Rose Conservancy of Susquehanna County
“As a small conservancy, we have had to work very hard to achieve this goal but we know
that it will benefit our constituents and that it will guide us in all of our work in furthering
our mission.” - Patty Bloomer, President
Land Conservancy of Adams County
“The Land Conservancy’s accredited status demonstrates our commitment to permanent
land conservation. Our organization is stronger today having gone through the rigorous
accreditation program.” - Norma Calhoun, President.
Westmoreland Conservancy
“Westmoreland Conservancy’s accredited status demonstrates our commitment to permanent land protection and conservation. Our land trust is a stronger organization for the
experience, better equipped to navigate the various challenges that present themselves in the
face of environmental preservation.” - Shelly Tichy, President
For the complete list of accredited Pennsylvania land trusts, visit ConserveLand.
org.
If your organization is considering applying for accreditation in the near future and is
interested in completing a Guided Organizational Assessment, contact Nicole Faraguna
at 717.909.1298 to find out if funding might be available.
Thanks to 2013 Conference Sponsors
AgChoice Farm Credit
Brandywine Conservancy
Chesapeake Conservancy & National
The Conservation Fund, PA Office
Conservation Impact
Farmland Preservation Artists
Green Hearts Institute for Nature
in Childhood
Hamer Foundation
Land Trust Alliance
Natural Lands Trust
The Nature Conservancy, PA Chapter
Park Service Chesapeake Bay Office
PA Farmland Preservation Association
Pennsylvania Game Commission
Saul Ewing LLP
The Trust for Public Land
Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Wildlands Conservancy
To learn about 2014 conference sponsorship opportunities,
please contact Nicole Faraguna at 717.909.1298.
Officers
Paul Lumia, President
Jeffrey Marshall, Vice-President
John Conner, Treasurer
Tom Saunders, Secretary
Andrew Loza, Assistant Secretary
Directors
Thomas Daniels
Sherri Evans-Stanton
Ralph Goodno
Kimberly Murphy
D. Andrew Pitz RLA
Jennifer Shuey
Voting Members
Allegheny Land Trust
Allegheny Valley Conservancy
Allegheny Valley Land Trust
Allegheny Valley Trails Association
Armstrong Cty Conservancy Charitable Trust
Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania
Bedminster Regional Land Conservancy
Berks County Conservancy
Brandywine Conservancy
Buck Hill Conservation Foundation
Central Pennsylvania Conservancy
Centre County Farmland Trust
Chestnut Hill Historical Society
ClearWater Conservancy
Conservancy of Montgomery County
The Conservation Fund, Pennsylvania Office
Countryside Conservancy
Delaware Highlands Conservancy
E.L. Rose Conservancy of Susquehanna Cty
East Nantmeal Land Trust
Eden Hill Conservancy
Evergreen Conservancy
Farm and Natural Lands Trust of York Cty
Foundation for Sustainable Forests
Fox Chapel Land Conservation Trust
French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust
French Creek Valley Conservancy
Green Space Alliance
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association
Heritage Conservancy
Hollow Oak Land Trust
Independence Conservancy
Keystone Conservation Trust
Lackawanna Valley Conservancy
Lancaster County Conservancy
Lancaster Farmland Trust
Land Conservancy of Adams County
Land Conservancy for Southern Chester Cty
Lebanon Valley Conservancy
London Britain Land Trust
Manada Conservancy
Merrill Linn Land & Waterways Conservancy
Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy
Mokoma Conservancy
Montgomery County Lands Trust
Montour Trail Council
Mount Nittany Conservancy
Natural Lands Trust
The Nature Conservancy
North American Land Trust
North Branch Land Trust
Northcentral PA Conservancy
Open Land Conservancy of Chester County
Pennsbury Land Trust
Pennsylvania Recreation & Park Society
Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust
Pine Creek Land Conservation Trust
Pine Creek Valley Watershed Association
Pocono Heritage Land Trust
The Radnor Conservancy
Regional Trail Corporation
Schuylkill County Conservancy
Somerset County Conservancy
Susquehanna Greenways Partnership
The Trust for Public Land
Tinicum Conservancy
Tricounty Rails to Trails
The Wallace Trust
West Pikeland Land Trust
Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Westmoreland Land Trust
Wild Waterways Conservancy Inc.
Wildlands Conservancy
Willistown Conservation Trust
Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association
The ConserveLand newsletter is supported by the
Growing Greener Program of the
Bureau of Recreation & Conservation,
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation
& Natural Resources.
Fall 2013
NonProfit Org
US POSTAGE
119 Pine Street, 1st floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1453
ConserveLand.org
Nicole Faraguna, Editor
[email protected]
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