Local Land Trusts Help Property Owners Preserve Open Space, Restore Wildlife Habitat and Protect Natural Lands From Future Development.
For more than six decades, nonprofit land trusts like Openlands, in Chicago, the Natural Lands Institute, in Rockford, and Lake Forest Open Lands Association, among others, have been partnering with willing landowners to conserve their land forever.
Each group has varying missions and approaches. But what they have in common is that “they work with landowners so that the next person that owns the land will not chop down trees and build bigger houses,” says Kim Elsenbroek, land preservation specialist for Openlands.
“Their goals might be different than ours,” she continues. “But to help private landowners protect their land, that’s the most niche thing land trusts do.”
Roughly 11 land trusts exist in the Chicago region, with more scattered throughout Illinois. The nonprofit movement serves as a powerful adjunct to government-run forest preserves and conservation districts.
“Land trusts do partner with these government districts,” Elsenbroek says. “But we have different resources and we can move more nimbly through the system. For example, we may purchase a property and hold it with a long-term agreement for a forest preserve to purchase it later.”
Land Trusts Fill a Conservation Gap
Openlands owns roughly 800 acres on 15 properties. “We have held some for many years, but our ultimate goal is to transfer the land to another entity in the area that it makes more sense for them to own.” Most of that land is not open to the public, while other land trusts such as Lake Forest Open Lands Association have several properties that are free to visit.
Land trusts also help landowners enhance their lands for wildlife, offer educational programs, and work with schools and other groups to build healthy communities.
Privately owned lands are being lost almost five times faster than lands owned or managed by federal or state governments, according to the Center for American Progress. As each property gets sold to development, rare native species are losing habitat.
Conservation Easements Protect Land for the Future
“One of the most powerful things a landowner can do to conserve open space after they are gone is to place a conservation easement on the land,” Elsenbroek says. The easement may allow landowners to save on taxes and other costs.
Retired Lake Forest College Economics Professor Jeff Sundberg, who lives in unincorporated Lake County, knows a lot about conservation easements, having published articles and given presentations on them.
He and his wife, Lori, purchased a Lake County property that had been on the market for a long time because it had a conservation easement. “People think an easement makes you do certain things,” Sundberg says. “It really doesn’t. It means you cannot do certain things. One of the biggest restrictions is a reduced ability to put new buildings on the property. We were able to build on our land, but only in one certain prespecified area and for only residential purposes.
“The previous owner put an easement on this property in order to protect the rural character of the area, so that governs a lot of what we can do,” he explains.
The landowner maintains the easement title, while Openlands monitors the property to make sure they are aligned with the easement agreement.
Sundberg adds, “Openlands is responsible for making sure I don’t put up an apartment building on it or a commercial dog kennel.”
Instead, he and a neighbor are getting annual rent from hay farmers, where the land was once soybean and corn. He also is converting much of the land to native prairie and savanna. With help from Openlands, Sundberg planted more than 500 trees and shrubs on the easement.
“I could cut them down or a future owner could cut them down, but the easement makes sure that the place won’t be stripped down and made into a housing development. I know it’s not going to become a data center,” he says.
Sundberg says removing a conservation easement requires state permission. “It’s very rare that happens,” he adds.
He and his wife are also removing invasive species such as buckthorn and reed canary grass, and replanting with native sedges, grasses and forbs. “I’m trying to provide a whole variety of food sources for wildlife,” says Sundberg, who enjoys watching bluebirds pick caterpillars off native trees he has planted. “It’s so rewarding,” he says.
“The easement took a lot of the market value away,” Sundberg says. What he gets in return, he says, is “the satisfaction of restoring the land, with the expectation that it will have longevity. I’m providing wildlife habitat and a lot of scenic value.”
Preserving a Family’s Connection to the Land
Jim Killam’s parents, who own a farm in Boone County, wanted to preserve their land in perpetuity as well.
“It’s next door to land owned by Boone County Conservation District with restored prairie and savanna,” Killam says.
His parents sold roughly 33 acres of land to Openlands, which will hold it until Boone County has the funds to take over the ownership.
“Right now it’s in corn and soybeans,” Killam says. But the land will eventually be seeded with native wildflowers and be part of the Kishwaukee Fen where copious lupines bloom in spring.
“Our family has a passion for national parks and conservation, and so the idea of that land returning to its natural state was really attractive to us,” Killam says.
Keeping Conservation in Private Hands
Elsenbroek says land trusts realize that not everybody that owns land wants it to be a conservation easement. “Our goal is to spread the word about preserving natural areas and connecting to different people in different ways, telling them how Openlands fits into their lives,” she says. For example, Openlands operates Space to Grow (Openlands.org/projects/space-to-grow), which transforms Chicago schoolyards into places to play, learn, garden and enjoy the outdoors, as well as reduce flooding in the neighborhood.
Elsenbroek says the core message of land trusts is that “private landowners are a big part of conservation. Most land in the Midwest is privately owned and that’s where we have to preserve the land. The private landowner has the power to decide what direction our landscape is going to go.”
Coming in next month’s issue: A guide to some local land trusts and properties that are open to the public.
Sheryl DeVore has written six books on science, health and nature, as well as nature, health and environment stories for national and regional publications. She is co-author of an upcoming book, Birds of the Midwest, to be published by Timber Press. Learn more at SherylDeVore.WordPress.com.
