None The Nature Conservancy in Washington Press Releases Search All Press Releases Leslie Brown Phone: (206) 343-4345, ext. 379 E-mail: leslie_brown@tnc.org

Nature Conservancy makes $2,600 donation to Grant County

Gift recognizes county's support, services.

Seattle, WA — January 31, 2002 — The Nature Conservancy of Washington has donated $2,600 to Grant County, approximately equivalent to what the organization would pay in property taxes were it not tax-exempt.

The Conservancy made the payment last month as a way to acknowledge both its impact on the county as a large landowner and its appreciation for county services such as fire protection. The Conservancy's board of trustees has agreed to consider such donations in areas where the organization owns 1,000 acres or more.

"We're proud of the Conservancy's contribution to the protection and enhancement of Grant County's biodiversity and beauty," said Nancy Warner, the Conservancy's North Central Washington program manager. "But we also realize our work would not be possible without the county's cooperation, services and support."

"This is our way of thanking the county and its residents and helping to ensure that our impact on the community is positive," added Chuck Warner, the Conservancy's NCW conservation projects manager.

The Conservancy owns 4,783 acres in Grant County at its Beezley Hills Preserve near Quincy, one of the Conservancy's largest preserves in Washington state. The donation to Grant County is the Conservancy's first in the state.

Further north, in Douglas County's Moses Coulee area, the Conservancy owns approximately 19,000 acres. Because all of these lands are leased to ranchers or farmers, the Conservancy currently pays property taxes there.

Under Washington state law, certain properties owned by land trusts are exempt from property taxes. The law was passed as a way to recognize that such holdings provide a number of public benefits, from wildlife habitat to educational opportunities. Several other entities are also exempt from property taxes under the same state law, including churches, cemeteries, libraries, nonprofit daycare centers and nonprofit hospitals.

The exemption has been important to many land trusts, since it helps to ease the high cost of land conservation. And in making the donation to Grant County, Conservancy staff stressed that most land trusts are not in a position to do the same. The Conservancy, which was founded 50 years ago, is one of the country's largest land trusts.

"Most smaller land trusts don't have this option," Chuck Warner said. "It makes sense for us because of the amount of land we own in Grant County."

Nancy and Chuck Warner will continue to work with county staff on a number of issues of shared concern, including illegal trash dumping, invasive weed control and fire protection. The goal of the Conservancy's North Central Washington program is to manage the Conservancy's properties in the Moses Coulee/Beezley Hills region and to work with the local community to pursue other opportunities to protect and restore key shrub-steppe habitat on private and public lands.

The Conservancy's holdings in Grant and Douglas counties protect some of the state's best remaining shrub-steppe habitat, a semi-arid ecosystem that is ecologically diverse and increasingly rare. Sixty percent of the state's shrub-steppe has been lost to agriculture, hydropower and other developments.

"We're committed to being a good neighbor and to working closely with a number of local public and private partners. Our goal is to work together to implement conservation strategies that are effective and that make sense in this part of the state," Nancy Warner said.

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a private, non-profit organization that seeks to protect the world's rich diversity of plants, animals and natural communities by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. The Conservancy uses a number of land conservation tools, from management agreements with private landowners to direct acquisition.

To date, the Conservancy and its one million members have helped to protect more than 12 million acres in the United States and, by way of partnerships, another 80 million acres in other parts of the world. In Washington, the Conservancy has 37,000 members, making it the largest membership-based conservation group in the state. The state chapter owns 43,000 acres and has helped to protect another 328,000 acres.