<HTML><HEAD>
<META charset=UTF-8 http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">
<DIV>FYI a patriotic appeal for land conservation.</DIV>
<DIV>>>"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." ...<<</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>January 1, 2004</DIV>
<DIV>Friends, <BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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." </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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? </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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? </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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? </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>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. </FONT><BR> <BR><FONT face=arial size=2>Tom Bailey</FONT><BR><FONT face=arial size=2>Little Traverse Conservancy</FONT><BR><FONT face=arial size=2>Michigan</FONT><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>