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		Nature Conservancy Magazine: Autumn 2006 Nature Conservancy Magazine Sale of the Century Up Close Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom Hunter, Angler, Conservationist The Stamp of Conservation Nature Stories Podcast Nature Landmarks Nature Books Nature Travel Nature Preserves Subscribe Previous Issues

Sale of the Century

Page 4

Piney Grove Preserve, Virginia © Joshua Paul Fowler's Toad, Piney Grove Preserve, Virginia © Joshua Paul View slideshows of the forests of: Alabama Maine South Carolina Virginia Wisconsin

Sharing the Conservation Burden
Partnering with state governments and timber management companies has helped the Conservancy work at a large scale, but some wonder if it’s large enough. “IP isn’t the last shoe that’s going to drop, and next time there’s just not going to be the same level of resources to respond,” says Elliman of the Open Space Institute.

To make matters more complicated, the federal budget for conservation acquisition has been cut to the bone. For 2007, the president has requested just $85 million for federal land purchases through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which finances additions to national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other lands. As recently as 2002, the budget was $446 million—more than five times as much.

“People used to think of large-scale conservation as being funded through the federal government,” says Ginn. “But working with the federal side is not really an option because their money is way, way, down.” That has meant the Conservancy and other groups have had their work cut out for them in recent years. But new and old partners are stepping up in support of conservation projects.

In the IP deals, state governments played a key role, making major commitments to eventually acquire and manage much of the land purchased by the Conservancy. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford signed a $32 million bond issue that ensured his state would eventually acquire and rehabilitate almost 39,000 acres of IP forestland that had been threatened by residential development. Over the next three years, the state of North Carolina will buy 67,000 acres of former IP land from the Conservancy for $72 million. “It’s a big day for conservation in North Carolina with this one,” says the Conservancy’s state chapter director Katherine Skinner. “Three rivers and a wetlands complex are hard to beat.”

Says Wisconsin Governor Doyle, whose state has a special endowment for land conservation: “We spend about $60 million a year to purchase land for the public here in Wisconsin, which is about half of what the feds have been spending [nationwide] lately.”  

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