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- Info
The land trust as a conservation tool
| Author: |
Roakes, Susan L.; Zwolinski, Marie |
| Date: |
1995 |
| Periodical: |
Chicago, IL: Council of Planning Librarians. CPL Bibliography 323 |
| Abstract: |
In the United States, rapid development, urban sprawl, and the visible depletion of open space, farmland, and wilderness have led to a new citizen awareness and concern for the dwindling supply of the nation's land and natural resources. Concurrent with this concern is the evolution of relationships between preservationists and developers, and between the public and private sectors to find new ways to preserve and conserve land. Land is saved for different purposes-for agricultural and recreational use, as well as to protect ecologically sensitive areas and to plan for future growth. Numerous techniques have been employed to preserve land, with varying degrees of success. In many cases the public sector has borne the responsibility for protecting land through conventional land use planning and regulatory practices such as zoning and taxation. However, there are many who believe that traditional public sector land conservation techniques have failed to protect important parcels of agricultural, historic, cultural, and recreational land. In the words of John B. Wright (1992), "although city and county land use planning offices are commonplace, tremendous amounts of agricultural land, wildlife habitat, wetlands, and scenic open space continue to be converted to incompatible forms of residential and commercial development each year". It is from this frame of reference that private sector initiatives have sprouted all over the United States, taking matters into their own hands to ensure that valuable land resources are not lost to development pressures.
The purpose of this bibliography is to discuss one such private sector land preservation technique: the land trust. Land trusts have emerged in recent years as a seemingly new method of preserving many types of special areas: agricultural land, wetlands, wilderness areas, and historic buildings. The bibliography is directed toward planners and conservationists, but especially for those who are considering the establishment of a land trust in their community. It is primarily intended to assist and provide information to those who are weighing this decision. It is also the intent of this bibliography to identify areas where additional research is needed, and to assess the merits and utility of this conservation tool. The bibliography includes sources that generally describe the land trust concept and sources relating to technical assistance, community land trusts, land acquisition techniques, and reference.
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