[MPWG] FYI Manifesto for Land Conservation

[Cafesombra at aol.com]

FYI a patriotic appeal for land conservation.
>>"When we sing Irving Berlin's classic "God Bless America," it is important 
to note, we sing the words, "land that I love," not "real estate that I'd like 
to exploit."  ...<<

January 1, 2004
Friends, 
 
I fell asleep last night to the sound of rain on the roof--a very unusual 
sound for a New Year's Night north of latitude 45. Two years ago, eight feet of 
snow fell between Christmas and New Year's Day; today, I see some snow but 
mostly bare ground beneath the hemlock trees around my office.  Water drips 
steadily from the eves of the building as dawn begins to break--a cloudy, grey dawn. 
 Record high temperatures are forecast for later in the day. 
 
One of yesterday's "year in review" programs on television declared that 2003 
was one of the warmest years on record and that something like seven of the 
ten warmest years in history have occurred since 1990.  Global climate chance 
is in evidence, they said, and the theorizing and speculation about how much of 
it has been caused by human activity continues.  
 
I don't pretend to have answers about the climate or other global issues, but 
I have a pretty good handle on how a number of things are going here in my 
home community.  The news is mixed at best.  Since 1973, we've conducted 
numerous opinion surveys, held community meetings and developed "vision statements" 
for areas ranging from one town to the entire county.  All have said the same 
thing: we want to remain a small town with abundant scenic beauty around, 
plenty of open space and a decidedly rural flavor.  We want to retain our high 
quality of life and resist succumbing to the typical sprawl that robs an area of 
its identity, its uniqueness and much of its traditional business community.  
That's the good news: for over three decades, we've been saying the same thing 
about what we want for a healthy community.  We've said it clearly and 
consistently in all of these polls, meetings, charettes and so forth. 
 
The bad news is that we can't seem to make our vision stick.  What we say 
does not carry through to what we do.  Before the ink was dry on the county 
master plan which clearly made prtection of agricultural areas a priority, a large 
discount chain came along and plopped right into a farm field, zoning be 
damned, followed in rapid succession by office and home stores.  Aggressive 
developers with stables of aggressive lawyers have intimidated our local planning and 
zoning bodies, burdened our townships and county with lawsuits, and poisoned 
the atmosphere for sensible planning, in spite of our long-declared 
oppposition to what they are doing to our land, our heritage and our community.  Huge 
developments have more than doubled our "tax base" in less than ten years, yet 
the cost of services has not gone down one penny; in fact, many have said that 
the quality of services has suffered.   This morning, I got a phone call that 
one of the local country clubs, which maintains a beautiful area of green in 
the midst of increasing sprawl, may be selling their front nine for a chain 
department store and a discount toy dealer.  
 
I don't  know if this latest rumor is true or not.  I'm quick to defend the 
rights of property owners to sell their land, and I'm pretty quick to defend 
the rights of people to develop land within the law.  But because the law not 
only allows but encourages the development of things that we as a community have 
specifically said that we don't want, in places where we have specifically 
said we don't want them, it is time to recognize that the laws need fixing.   
 
Steve Small, who has been a tremendous friend and mentor to both the land 
conservation movement and to me, has noted that "if you go almost anywhere in 
this country and say that you have some land to develop, there are lots of people 
ready to help you.  Land development is widely understood.  The lawyers 
understand it, the bankers understand it, the realtors understand it, and there are 
numerous institutions and resources available to people who want to develop 
land."   
 
I would add that if one goes nearly anywhere in the country with land to 
"develop," the legal and financial institutions are all more than ready to 
accommodate and anticipate the supposed benefits of this "development."  Taxing 
authorities look for enhanced revenue and greater "tax base."  Growth in the local 
economy is eagerly awaited.  "Progress" is welcomed.  And even when it is not 
welcomed, it is often viewed as inevitable and accepted with resignation.  And 
even though it often leaves a community worse than it found them. 
 
Conversely, Small has said, go almost anywhere in the country and announce 
that you have some land to protect from development and you'll be met with cold 
stares and puzzled looks at best; outright contempt at worst.  Those of us in 
the land conservation business know what this is like.  
 
What in blazes is wrong with this picture?  Why is it that, even in a 
community like mine where people have overwhelmingly declared their preference for 
maintaining the character of the area and its natural, scenic and agricultural 
open space, we can't seem to resist the lure of the almightly dollar, even when 
it has been proven ofttimes to be merely the glitter of fool's gold? 
 
As ususal, there are no easy answers.  To understand it, we need to look back 
in history and recognize we're largely a nation of immigrants, settlers and 
pioneers.  We treasure our historic past--rightly so--and we identify strongly 
with what we see as the positive qualities in our forebears.  We treasure the 
freedom to seek our fortunes, to make a name for ourselves.  We recall the 
days of the frontier, abundant land and the Wide Open Spaces just waiting to 
offer up their abundance to us.  We yearn for opportunity and we hold tightly to 
that wonderful American Spirit that grew out of the efforts of a free and 
enterprising people determined to make their own living--and a better living for 
their children--against a backdrop of wilderness and raw, rugged nature.  Our 
story is a wonderful one.  And I am foursquare in favor of hanging on tightly to 
our heritage, our past, our spirit and our character.  I love the stories of 
the pioneers, the mountain men, the prairie wives and the courageous people 
who shaped and were shaped by this beautiful land we call America.  I believe 
that is it important for us to hold onto the heritage of the American Indians, 
the cowboys, the 49'ers, the steamboat pilots, loggers, sourdoughs and all of 
the types of pioneering people who built this society recognized the world over 
as uniquely American.  And I can cite a number of sources--including Tom 
Brokaw's excellent "The Greatest Generation"--that provide further proof of the 
power and magnificence of this wonderful American Spirit.  
 
And so arises the conundrum: now that the frontier is long gone and the human 
population swells to levels not envisioned by those who created our cherished 
institutions, how do we maintain the best aspects of the American Spirit that 
arose from the days of the frontier and seemingly unlimited land resources?  
How do we keep enough of the wild intact and close at hand so that we can all 
share in the heritage of a great people arising from a great land--and yet 
accommodate the needs of growing multitudes?  
 
For those of us in the land conservation business, it's a familiar dilemma:  
how to knit together the best of preservation with the best of progress.  How 
do we protect and preserve our Constitution, our fundamental freedoms and our 
democratic form of government--while also protecting the land and abundant 
resources that are America and that gave rise to this wonderful people called 
Americans?  
 
In his afforementioned book, Tom Brokaw notes that the people of The Greatest 
Generation came largely from farms and ranches across this great land.  They 
arose from their rural roots and in rapid succession conquered the greatest 
economic crisis ever to befall the world and also conquered the greatest engines 
of hatred and brutal conquest ever seen on earth: Nazi Germany and Imperial 
Japan.  That generation prevailed because of their bedrock values and their 
experience of hard work--much of that hard work done on and close to the land. 
 
When we sing Irving Berlin's classic "God Bless America," it is important to 
note, we sing the words, "land that I love," not "real estate that I'd like to 
exploit."  This is a critical distinction that was avoided and put off in the 
days of the frontier and a small American population.  It is one which cannot 
be dodged as our population approaches 300 millions of souls and our ability 
to modify the landscape has escalated to truly frightening proportions.  
 
If we are to retain our vital, unique and precious American spirit and 
character, we must preserve the land that is America.  The overexploitation of that 
landscape, and excessive appropriation of our land by small groups and 
corporations, represents a significant threat to the ability of our children and 
future generations to inherit the opportunity for a truly American experience.  We 
can have too much of a good thing, and one of those good things is clearly 
land development.  This is something we in land conservation have recognized for 
some time.  But I submit to my friends in land conservation and to our nation 
as a whole that we have been to quiet, too complacent and too humble in our 
efforts. 
 
When I fell asleep last night to the sound of rain in January I could not, as 
one individual, form any meaningful conclusions about global climate change 
and the role of humanity in that process.  But when I woke up this morning to a 
grey dawn and new concerns about the impact of land development on our 
community, I knew with deep certainty that the solution to my community's problems 
lies not only in local action and adjustment, but in a fundamental shift in the 
attitude our legal, financial and governmental institutions take toward land 
development and exploitation.  
 
The challenge is this: for American society as a whole--not just for land 
conservationists, environmentalists, hunters, anglers and outdoor 
recreationists--we must reverse the institutional momentum of Manifest Destiny.  We must 
retire the nineteenth and twentieth century institutions which were created to 
encourage the divisoin and exploitation of land.  We must adjust our legal, 
financial, governmental and tax structures so as to retain what's left of the wild. 
 We must protect farming and ranching as a way of life--not just for large 
corporate interests, but for American individuals and American families.  We 
must fight for the freedom to range over large, wild areas of this great nation 
of ours and to share in the experience of our ancestors who hunted, fished, 
explored, farmed, ranched and loved this beautiful land from sea to shining sea.  
 
And we must take a lesson from the hunters and anglers who faced similar 
crises a century ago.  Hunters and anglers recognized in the early twentieth 
century that the days of unlimited hunting and fishing were over, and they formed 
groups to impose upon themselves licensing regulations, bag limits, seasons and 
a number of taxes to pay for the protection of the resources they loved and 
used.  These visionary Americans began to see themselves not only as consumers 
of fish and wildlife, they saw themselves stewards of fish, game and the 
habitat for both.  
 
It is time to do the same with land.  In the United States of America in the 
Third Millennium, we can no longer afford to treat land as a commodity to be 
consumed.  We must continue, as we began to do in the the era of Teddy 
Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot a century ago, and in the dust bowl days of the 1930s, 
to recognize land as a resource that requires stewardship.  
 
Just as the Greatest Generation arose to meet and conquer the challenges of 
their day, so must we arise and answer to the clarion's call: dark forces 
threaten our American way of life and our very American landscape.  These forces 
are not unlike those faced by the Greatest Generation. They can be contained and 
subdued with the proper effort, but it will require hard work and sacrifice 
in order to prevail.  We will be called upon to make great adjustments and to 
open ourselves to new ways of doing things in order to protect ourselves from 
this menace.  
 
But protect ourselves we can, and protect our way of life we must.  
Fortunately, we have wonderful examples to follow.  Just a few days ago, I accepted a 
conservation easement on behalf of our organization from a couple who had both 
served in the United States Army and, after retiring to their family farm, 
vowed to use their property rights to protect the land they love.  Thus they gave 
another gift of service to our nation and to generations to come: the gift of 
a living landscape dedicated to continuing use as the Greatest Generation, 
and many generations before, had intended.  Another patriotic sacrifice for the 
good of our nation.  
 
If it seems as though there is a lot of flag-waving in this message, then 
you've got the right impression.  Teddy Roosevelt taught that conservation is 
patriotic, and though some of the less enlightened in our nation would have us 
sacrifice our land, our heritage and our future under the guise of rights and 
freedoms, their vision is myopic and their counsel misguided.  The altar of 
short-term economic gain is no place for the giving up of our land and our 
freedom. 
 
It is time for the land conservation movement to broaden itself and assume 
its rightful place among the guardians of this nation's heritage and those who 
would assure its healthy future.  It is time for us to make our movement not 
just more "diverse," but universal.  It is time to drive home the point that 
saving the countryside and saving the cities are causes that are direcly 
interlinked, and it is time to alert the entire nation to the clarion's call that 
summons us to fight for our heritage, our birthright, and our hope for generations 
to come.  
 
Manifest Destiny must be replaced by a New Destiny: a New Destiny that offers 
hope and opportunity for all through the appropriate stewardship of the land 
we call America, for us and for all generations to come.  
 
Tom Bailey
Little Traverse Conservancy
Michigan
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