national forests vs land trust lands?

do you think the land trusts take better care of their lands then say the national forest service? i know the national forest service leases out their mineral rights for gas and oil drilling and mining. i hear the land trust says no to these uses. what offers more protection and do you think land trusts would be better keepers of the forest than the forest service. do not forget that politicians might open a national forest up to clear cutting and old growth logging while a conservation easement can prohibit old growth logging while allowing middle growth logging to happen such as a working forest conservation easement.

First, not all land trusts are created equal. Often, it is merely a stepping stone to avoid taxes.

I think that a lot has to do not only how the trust is set up, but how the trustees perform their jobs.
As in every other walk of life, there are people who excel at their jobs, and there are also those that abuse the system. Run their expense accounts to the limit every chance they get. To many, being a trustee is just a 'cash cow'. Easier than a 'real job'. Lawyers that get to manage the bookkeeping. That can be a dangerous combination if those in charge don't have the same interests as those who put the land into trust.

John Polk wrote:Lawyers that get to manage the bookkeeping.

Sounds like congress.

I just went to the annual meeting of our local land trust this past weekend. We manage the land very responsibly, we are very much a community run group, and we have been the major force in stopping the spread of horrible unsustainable development that was threatening to eat our town and destroy every bit of habitat left.

I can't speak for other land trusts but I'm very happy with ours and trust it to make the best choices. There is, in a way, a tax avoidance side to the question, but I don't love the tax structure. Land owners who are not extremely wealthy feel trapped. They may not want to turn the woods into paved suburbia, but without conservation easements they may be forced to.

This may be a topic for the cider press forums, it is rather political.

It seems these day, no place in the countryside is off limits to development for resources be it oil, natural gas, large scale wind energy developments, acre upon acre of solar panel farms, mining for aggregate, mining for rare earth metals, lumber, water rights, transmission lines. Just look at the Bundy Ranch situation in Nevada. Supposedly, the Bureau of Land Management was protecting the desert rangeland for an endangered tortoise. Turns out it was a lie. The BLM is euthanizing the turtles by the hundred and thousands to make way for an "Energy Corridor" from Mexico to Canada. The U.S. Government is selling thousand upon thousands of acres of federally protected land that belong to U.S. citizens to the Chinese and corporations for pennies on the dollars.

If government and politicians want your land, they will take it one way or another..... tax you to death, take away water rights, zoning laws etc. I would like to know a safe place to live without having to worry about all the above. If anyone knows what land is off limits from development, let me know. I want to move there!!!

Cut and paste the link below for info -

http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/2014/04/17/standing-with-rancher-cliven-bundy/

Ben Miller wrote:
If anyone knows what land is off limits from development, let me know. I want to move there!!!

Hahahahaha! That's funny. If land is off limits to development, nobody will live there.

This is why local land trusts are valuable. Nobody would be able to do anything horrible on our protected land, we have a sense of stewardship and the trust is accountable to it's members. We are a town in a small state. Scale matters in these matters.

Ok - let me re-phrase large scale industrial development. I have a small homestead that we have lovingly cared for over the years. Now we are told that massive 60 story Industrial Wind project can be placed adjacent to our property??? They can put them so close that people are warned not to enjoy their own property walking, cross country skiing etc. during times of possible ice throw from the turbines. They can put them approx. 1500 feet from the "center" of a home. I also have been told that they will be audible and cause vibration in our home w/ thumping, roaring and whooshing. Many people are forced to close their windows during the summer and install air conditioning to drowned out the noise to be able to sleep. Now that is environmentally friendly!

Now the government wants to re-designate my property in the "official plan" from agricultural and natural to "aggregate" because these turbines and the access roads need massive amounts of gravel. Apparently, there is gravel somewhere under my property and the province wants to turn it into a gravel pit for "the greater good". Then, they need water for the concrete and so the international corporation -Samsung is being provided permits to take millions of gallons of groundwater per day to wash the gravel. They are even giving "Kill Permits" for eagles and other wildlife.

One of the turbines in the area recently caught fire and had it been during hot, dry weather, may have resulting in a forest fire. There are no hydrants out here in the boonies.

Just seems to me they are using corporate and personal greed to hijack the environmental movement under the false premise to save the planet. Like most people in this forum, I want a little piece of land that I can steward and pass on to my kids. Perhaps, someday have a small personal windmill and solar panel and go off grid. I want to enjoy my garden and wildlife.

Are you aware of the mountain tops they are destroying adjacent to the Appalachian Trail in New England? The destruction is especially widespread in Maine and New Hampshire. It just seems that unless a person is massively wealthy and can afford to own thousands of acres, no one is off limits from an over reaching and out of control government. Basically the government wants people off the land and in the cities. Country life will not be affordable to the average person. The countryside will be reserved for massive factory farming and energy and resource development.

I'm so sorry about this wind development! The noise is disruptive, I have a friend who had a turbine go up right behind her house. Oh it makes my blood boil when greed leads people to do things like that. I hope the project is not a done deal and you can still fight it.

Thanks Matu,
They are not up yet. Name of the game - delay, delay, delay. People in Toronto are slowly waking up to the environmental and economic destruction of littering the countryside with these monstrosities. City folk's electric rates are sky rocketing too and they are finding their favorite scenic holiday destinations are no more. Hopefully, the complicit politicians are voted out in the next election. Going back to land trust. In our neck of the woods, land trusts are not safe either. People need to go to County Council meetings on a regular basis to keep them honest.