Panelists on the program were:
-
Karen Bassler, Madison,
program director of Gathering Waters Conservancy, the
umbrella organization for Wisconsin land trusts.
- Carl Wacker, Madison, of the Natural Resources
Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
-
Kim Wright, representing
the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund of the state Department
of Natural Resources. The Stewardship Fund provides money
to protect rare natural resources, often matching money
generated locally.
A conservation easement is
the donation or purchase of development rights. When a
landowner grants an easement, he or she gives up some or
all development rights but retains ownership. The owner
can practice forestry, farm the land, hunt and use it for
other purposes, depending on how the easement is written.
Public access is not required. “The
owner still decides who is welcome on the land,” said
Jo Seiser of Stevens Point, president of NCCT. She said
examples of conservation easements held by NCCT are:
The Big Tree Easement in Taylor County,
22 acres of old-growth white pine, hemlock, sugar maple
and yellow birch, donated anonymously and described as “a
classic example of northern, mixed mesic forest, a dense,
dark climax forest.”
The Mumford Easement on the Eau Claire
River, near Eau Claire Dells in Marathon County. Once
cut over, it has grown back with hemlock, white pine,
balsam, paper birch, alder, willows, winterberry and
dogwood.
The Mason Easement on Lake
Jacqueline in Portage County, holding a great variety of
bog plants with no invasive species.
Seiser said the land trust is
working on several more easements.
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