Common Ground - Western Reserve Land Conservancy

At A Glance
* The scarcity of public funding was identified
* Hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling
* Our region’s population peaked in 1970 at
* Restoring degraded natural systems is more
* One study shows that if we moved our share
* The demolition of homes in urban neigh-
by 81% of our survey respondents as one of
the biggest challenges facing land conservation
over the next three years.
in the Utica Point Pleasant formation are
creating one of the largest challenges ever
for conservation in northern Ohio.
more than 4.2 million people. While the
population has declined since that time, we
have continued to develop 8% more of our
land, according to land cover surveys.
expensive than preserving and managing
intact ones.
of locally sourced food from the current 1%
to 25%, we could create 27,000 new jobs.
borhoods will give us a second chance to
establish more green space, farm in unconventional
areas and otherwise look at our
land use in creative and innovative ways.
44 CHAPTER 5 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES LOOM
CHAPTER 5
Challenges and opportunities loom
T he land conservation community clearly faces major
challenges as it looks to the future.
In our survey, we asked the land-protection partners in the
region what they saw as the biggest challenges or obstacles
facing land protection and restoration over the next three
years. Eighty-one percent of the respondents indicated the
biggest issue was the scarcity of available public funds.
It was by far the most common answer, followed by the
scarcity of philanthropic funds, which was identified by
44.4% of the respondents.
But it would be a mistake to assume all would be right with
the regional land-protection world if we solved those two
problems.
A host of other challenges – some emerging, some longstanding
– are looming: oil and gas drilling, sprawl, a lack
of coordination among conservation groups, climate change,
poor government and public works policies, environmental
insensitivity and a lack of public awareness of the value
of land protection. One respondent described the biggest
challenge as “economic development at any cost and the
general ecological illiteracy of the culture.”
Many survey respondents saw significant opportunities to
improve land protection over the next three years. Nearly
63% of our respondents indicated the key was increasing
landowner awareness of the conservation-easement option,
while nearly 55% said the region’s conservation groups
need to create a common goal and plan. “I think a strong
message about the value of protection needs to be agreed
upon and actively promoted,” one wrote.
How the conservation community responds to challenges
will largely determine how successful we are in preserving
vital natural resources, farmland and other key properties
over the next decade.
The public’s view of conservation
There is a varying degree of public support for land
protection throughout our region.
Based on our survey of land protection professionals, 58%
of our local communities are moderately to extremely
supportive of land conservation. Less than 10% have
reported local communities that are moderately opposed to
land conservation. Counties with levy-backed park districts
tend to be well supported by the people they serve. But five
of the 14 counties in our service area (36%), have no levy
support for their county park district.
The Clean Ohio program continues to get strong voter
support for continued funding, even during difficult
economic times. In a survey of Ohio voters conducted by
Public Opinion Strategies during late spring 2011, 55% of
voters in the Cleveland media market expressed a desire to
maintain funding for the Clean Ohio while 37% opposed
it. Nationally, conservation has gained some traction. For
example, during the November 2010 election, 28 of the 35
proposals for conservation funding were passed by voters,
an 80% approval rate. This amounted to approximately $2
billion for conservation work nationally, according to the
Trust for Public Land and the Hewlett Foundation.
Government policies, funding are critical
It is not financially feasible for most landowners to donate
their land or conservation easements, so public funding
programs that support land and easement purchases
plus “bargain sales” – sales made at below-market value
for the purpose of making a donation – are essential
to the protection of special places in our communities.
Conservation easements, which severely limit or prohibit