As a co-founder and former board member of Great Works Regional Land Trust and owner of four properties protected by conservation easements, I can speak with some authority that the recently published Maine Voices (Dec. 21) by Jerome A. Collins of Kennebunkport is riddled with errors and misconceptions about land trusts.

First, Great Works Regional Land Trust pays local property taxes – this year, approximately $12,000 to just one of the six towns in its service area. As a nonprofit organization, it receives no special tax benefits other than those available to any person or business that enrolls in a state program – tree growth, for example.

Second, trees do sequester carbon, and the amount is definitely not a matter of opinion. It can be calculated, but not generalized because every parcel of land is different, according to the age of the trees, the mix of hardwoods and conifers, etc. To get a specific value, consult a forester.

Third, the citizens of all six towns in our service area have, at one time or another, voted to support, through generous funding, acquisitions by our land trust – usually for the largest and most expensive parcels. In this way, townspeople have a direct voice in decisions about open space.

Fourth, the overwhelming majority of the trust’s holdings are managed for sustainability by professional foresters. Very few are maintained “forever wild.” Thus the claim that land trust properties represent a fire hazard is ludicrous, as is the comparison to the fire threat posed by much drier land in California.

Joe Hardy
Wells

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