Land Conservancy is best opportunity to save open space

One of our best hopes for saving open space and the pastoral beauty of Blount County and the East Tennessee area lies in the efforts of the Foothills Land Conservancy.

The idea of conserving water and soil was a new one 50 years ago. As this nation has grown there has always been plenty of new area to develop with the westward expansion. And there still is, but we must do a better job of planning and saving. Many of the more scenic and beautiful areas of the nation are beginning to get overcrowded.

When the Blount County Soil Conservation District was founded about 52 years ago, even the best educated had little idea of the need to conserve water and soil and how we would be able to do it.

Then 21 years ago when the Foothills Land Conservancy was founded it was a concept that was totally foreign even to most of the educated leaders of the county.
While restrictions can be placed in property deeds, those restrictions are only worthwhile when the owner is willing to abide by them or when a neighbor who is aware of the restrictions is willing to go to court to enforce them. That is essentially an unworkable approach.

A property owner who wants to restrict development of his or her property may do so through a conservation easement that limits what can be built on the property and how it may be used. When the use of property is limited by such an agreement it likely will lower the resale value of the property but the property owner will receive signifant reductions in federal income tax that makes the easement worthwhile. In some instances, it is more profitable to establish an easement than to sell the property.

The Foothills Land Conservancy is a non-profit organization, operated by a board of directors with Bill Clabough as executive director and with headquarters in Maryville. It is responsible for seeing that the use of land in easements it has handled is followed. Should the local conservancy for any reason cease operation, the responsibility would fall on a similar national organization.

The Foothills Conservancy recently committed to a goal of protecting a total of 25,000 acres of area land by its 25th anniversary in 2010. It currently has 17,000 acres under protection from development.

It appears that by year’s end the conservancy will add 12 new properties in Blount County, including three working farms. It currently has 10,000 acres in Blount County under protection.

Many residents would like to preserve a considerable amount of our rural, open space in Blount County. While it would be possible to purchase land with local taxpayer dollars and place it into protection, by far the best plan is to encourage current owners of open space to avail themselves of existing options while provide major federal income tax benefits.

We commend the Foothills Land Conservancy on the outstanding job it has done since its founding 21 years ago.

And we should not miss adding that it would not exist had it not been for the untiring efforts of Gail Harris who founded the local organization and explained this conceept which was “new” outside New England.