Oliver Bass

At Natural Lands, we hold more than 420 conservation easements – to include the first in Pennsylvania, which was completed in the 1960s – and own 44 fee properties. Unfortunately, threats to protected lands are ever increasing. Like many land trusts, Natural Lands is fielding frequent requests for amendments or beneficial interpretations from second and third generation landowners whose understanding of and commitment to their easements varies widely. The result is far too often a delicate balancing act between maintaining the integrity of the easement and the prospect of potentially costly litigation, including cases that might have unintended precedential consequences.

Here in Pennsylvania, we have experienced other serious threats to protected properties. In 2018, a school district sought to take by eminent domain a historic farm protected decades ago with a Natural Lands easement. This coincided with an attempt by a different school district to take one of Natural Lands’ fee properties, which was also under an easement held by a different land trust. Thanks to strong public resistance, we thwarted both attempts and new legislation was passed that now provides additional protection from takings for properties under easement in the state. The legal bills involved in these cases were significant and we were fortunate to have donor support to offset most of those costs. Without that funding our ability to engage in the months-long battles to defend these properties would have been dramatically curtailed.

To the extent possible, our ability as a field to mount appropriate defense of fee lands and easements and to the legal underpinning of easements more generally should not be determined based upon the financial resources of an individual land trust. Terrafirma is an essential tool to prevent that from happening and it must be managed prudently so that it remains financially viable and sustainable. That would be an important interest were I elected to the Members’ Committee. At the same time, we need to ensure that coverage is structured in a way that it is available to help members respond to the ever evolving and potentially existential challenges that our work faces.