Land Conservation Organizations

Almost 20-years ago someone made the following comment to Jim Gossweiler, Federated Environmental’s Principal Geologist. Non-profit land conservation organizations don’t really protect or preserve anything. Their work is essentially symbolic. Generously funded by numerous government programs and a well-meaning, but somewhat naïve, donating public, land conservation organizations make a living selling natural symbols and imagery.

Well, two decades later and having inspected over 9.5-miles of protected Atlantic coastline, thousands of acres of Bald Cypress Swamp, coastal salt marsh, Appalachian Mountain meadows and Serpentine Pine Barrens teaming with habitat-specific mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, trees, and wildflowers, he still couldn’t disagree more.

Idaho River TNC_opt

One great misperception is that wild lands and sensitive habitats areas are free of environmental liability. Many of these areas had historical uses that aren’t so apparent today.