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What
is a Land Trust? First of all, land trusts are organizations
- groups of people. They can have a local, regional
or provincial area of focus, and are generally locally-created
and operated. Despite the prevalence of land trusts concerned
with ecological issues, they can also be set up to conserve scenic,
historical,
agricultural, recreational and other types of landscapes. Regardless,
what they all have in common is that they hold 'land' or interests
in land
in 'trust' for future generations. It is only in recent
years that the land trust
'movement' has begun to emerge across the country. The movement in
the United States is much more mature. They have had land trusts
for
over 100 years and currently have over 1200 operating across that
country. It is the fastest growing segment of their conservation
movement,
with the addition on one new land trust per week. For both countries, the advantages and popularity
of land trusts have the same roots. Being smaller and more focused,
land trusts are able to operate in a more efficient and less expensive,
yet more responsive way than traditional land conservation efforts.
Their popularity is based on their structure, meaning 1) they can
tailor their efforts to the local situation and local concerns,
and 2) they
can better involve and empower local people to part of the conservation
solutions in their area. The Southern Alberta Land Trust Society (SALTS)
was established by a group of ranchers in southwestern Alberta to
look for ways to address the accelerating fragmentation of the landscape,
the rapid disappearance of the province's native rangelands, and the
loss of open spaces and wildlife habitat. On a cold February evening in 1997, in a one-room
schoolhouse in southwestern Alberta, a group of ranchers gathered
to discuss their common concerns and feelings. It was not clear from
the outset what could or should be done, but as the conversation continued,
agreement emerged around some necessary basic elements. First, a solution would have to start from
within the community, providing a necessary sense of local ownership.
People with a long-standing connection to the land, first-hand
understanding of the issues and credibility with their peers
would
need to drive the process. The role of the group would be to empower
ranchers and ranch communities to create and implement their vision,
and to provide them with the tools needed to do so. Second, they recognized that you can't have
a long-term solution that sustains land in an ecological sense,
but
ignores its economic and cultural sustainability - and vice versa.
Thoughtful stewardship is a cultural choice, often tempered by
economic
reality. The group's approach would have to recognize that these
lands have ecological, productive, economic, scenic and cultural
value.
Third, there was also a need to reach and partner
with people outside the ranching community. Native rangelands enrich
the quality of life of all Alberta residents, and these values needed
to be brought to the public's attention. A landowner committee was formed to look at
the possible mechanisms for pursuing these goals.
The timing was ideal as the pressing need identified by the ranchers
converged with the ability to
hire
a coordinator who had recently being doing research on this topic,
and Alberta had just created conservation easement legislation. It quickly became apparent that a land trust
would be the ideal vehicle to pursue their goals. By 1998, the
Southern
Alberta Land Trust Society was incorporated as a non-profit society
and was registered federally as a charity. The landowner committee
transformed into a Board of Directors, most of whom were working ranchers.
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