Conservation

The past thirty years or so, perhaps traceable back to the original Earth Day, have seen a rapid increase in social consciousness, both in America and abroad, regarding the natural environment. This modern era followed a longer period in American history when attention to environmental stewardship came from a few farsighted pioneers, such as John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt, but otherwise emerged against a backdrop of unrestrained development and efforts to "tame" the natural environment.

The result of this has been an increasing scramble for land, as resource extraction firms, investors, second-home builders, urban refugees, and conservationists compete for pieces of a decidedly fixed pie.

Nowhere is the competition more acute than in the eastern United States. Out west, there is an abundance of public land, but in the east land ownership has been overwhelmingly private. In states like New York and Maine, vast areas of remote woodlands are in the hands of timber companies, or investment pools such as timber management organizations (TIMOs), with a focus on extracting natural resources. This fits into a broader, national competition for land as booming farming and biofuel industries provide increasing financial incentives to clear woodland for crops. Conservationists have stepped into the game, with non-profits such as the Nature Conservancy pursuing a mix of outright purchase and conservation deals, and individuals such as Roxanne Quimby (see here, here) single-handedly impacting an entire statewide market. Real estate values in these areas have been rising sharply in recent years but are still low enough for one person to acquire vast areas.

The conservation-motivated buyer has several options available upon acquiring land in remote areas, such as:

• Doing nothing, simply keeping the land away from commercial forestry and development interests
• Restricting development but permitting certain traditional uses, via a conservation easement (possibly with favorable tax consequences)
• Teaming up with other conservationists to assemble larger tracts of open space
• Dedicating parkland to the public
• Pursuing on-site efforts to promote healthy ecosystems

To be clear, we are a for-profit investment partnership, not a non-profit organization, and are not looking to take credit for any conservation efforts of our own. However, we do take pride in our work of diligently searching the real estate market for opportunities to acquire parcels with a good mix of features (location, road access, recreational opportunities, etc) for attractive prices. We don't look to hold for the long term, so we try to attract buyers by offering good property at good prices, with detailed information, and conduct our transactions with professionalism. We keep the conservation buyer in mind when we look for property, and if this is your interest we hope you give our properties consideration.