A report from the April 2001 meeting of the Land Trust Alliance
Working Forest Conservation Easements Advisory Panel
by Brenda Lind
The increasing use of conservation easements to protect private, productive forestland and recent large-scale projects protecting tens or hundreds of thousands of acres are bringing out challenges and questions related to working forest conservation easements (WFCEs). WFCEs are easements developed specifically for working forests that are actively managed for timber or other marketable goods. In April 2001, a Land Trust Alliance (LTA) advisory panel of conservation easement and forest management practitioners from across the country discussed emerging WFCE trends and ongoing challenges, including forming complex partnerships with multiple parties in easement transactions, documenting and monitoring a forests multiple resources and managing public access on some working forestlands.
WFCE practitioners hope that by exploring these questions and anticipating future challenges, we can work together to fine-tune and strengthen this tool to benefit and protect working forests, said Tammara Van Ryn, LTAs eastern region director. The meeting built on the advisory panels first gathering in the Spring 2000, where panelists worked to identify and gain consensus on basic approaches to WFCEs.
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