Avenue Vine

PRESS DEMOCRAT: You have spent almost three decades in the land trust movement, including almost 25 years as general counsel and chief operating officer for Trust for Public Land in San Francisco, one of the nation's largest land trusts. What is the most important contribution the nation's 1,500 land trusts have made since they gained prominence in the 1980s?

BENSON: Land trusts promote private land conservation in ways that complement our public lands. Working with private landowners, local and regional land trusts alone have permanently protected more than 9 million acres of scenic, natural, agricultural, historic and open land throughout the United States.

Beyond the land protected, land trusts provide ways for people of all ages who care about the places they live and work and most enjoy to connect with each other and with the land through their membership and hikes and volunteer activities.

Land trusts foster a sense of place.

PRESS DEMOCRAT: The Sonoma Land Trust, founded 30 years ago in 1976, is the largest of several North Coast land trusts. It has $32 million in assets, mostly land, 13 employees and an annual operating budget of about $2.8 million. Why do you say it is, in part, a real estate organization?

BENSON: We do deals. Our core skills have to do with financing, buying and selling land and interests in land such as conservation easements.

We work with a rich network of local nonprofit partners who focus on science and education such as LandPaths, the Sonoma Ecology Center, the Laguna Foundation, Circuit Rider Productions and others, as well as agricultural groups and advocacy groups such as the Greenbelt Alliance.

But our niche is transactional - securing land. We work with lawyers and title companies. We also function as a bridge between private landowners and public agencies lining up financing from multiple sources when that is required.

PRESS DEMOCRAT: Why have you said that conservation in Sonoma County is good business?

BENSON: Ours is a place-based economy. Throughout the world Sonoma County means that special blend of wine and cheeses, vineyards and oak-studded golden hills (green, this time of year), redwoods and the coast.

Agriculture, tourism and real estate all depend on the land, and when the land is so beautiful there is added value and benefit.

Marketing depends upon differentiation, and one thing you can say about Sonoma County is that it is not like any other place. We are in a dynamic metropolitan region. We have remarkably productive land and the essence of classic Northern California beauty.

Conserving this land base will pay dividends for generations.

PRESS DEMOCRAT: What are the Sonoma Land Trust's key achievements?

BENSON: When you cross the Petaluma River going east on Highway 37, virtually the entire landscape you see over to Sears Point will be open forever. Some of that land - the uplands - will be grazed, some will be restored as tidal wetlands and some will be opened with trails.

Beyond the Baylands, we have developed long-range land conservation strategies for the North Coast, the Laguna de Santa Rosa and more recently Sonoma Mountain and Sonoma Valley.

We hold about 35 conservation easements throughout the county and have an active corps of member volunteers who help monitor the easements and steward our preserves.

We own some remarkable properties, each of which we use to promote broader conservation efforts in various parts of the county - Laufenburg Ranch in Knights Valley, the historic Glen Oaks Ranch in Glen Ellen, land on the Estero Americano and Little Black Mountain near Cazadero.

And we work hand in hand with the Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District to help leverage their funds.

PRESS DEMOCRAT: Looking ahead, what are the Sonoma Land Trust's main goals?

BENSON: Number one: we would like to see the voters of Sonoma County continue to fund the Open Space District when it comes up again on the ballot - possibly this November. The district has done a magnificent job permanently protecting agricultural land throughout the county and, more recently, scenic backdrops and recreational land such as Tolay Lake, Taylor Mountain in Santa Rosa and the Montini Ranch in Sonoma. Taylor Mountain will be an icon of Sonoma County in years to come.

We share with the district a long-term goal of protecting the scenic, natural, agricultural and open landscapes of Sonoma County for the benefit not only of those of us here today, but for our kids and grandkids and beyond. My first grandchild, Oscar, arrived last year, and I am very mindful of the world he will be living in when he is my age.

PRESS DEMOCRAT: How much does growth threaten Sonoma Land Trust's goals?

BENSON: I think we can both accommodate growth and protect our signature landscapes.

A 2004 report by the Farm Bureau and the Greenbelt Alliance called "Preventing Sprawl" pointed the way. It said enforce the county General Plan by channeling growth into our existing urban growth boundaries and extend funding for the Open Space District so we can permanently protect the agricultural and open land that frames our cities.

Our cities will inevitably become more urban, but that can be interesting and good, and it is how we will protect the countryside.

PRESS DEMOCRAT: Can you give some examples of Sonoma Land Trust projects under way?

BENSON: We are excited about the opportunity we may have to purchase the Jenner Headlands. This is one of the most beautiful, photographed spots on the California coast and would be a perfect complement to the state parks on the south side of the Russian River.

Connecting the patchwork of protected land on Sonoma Mountain, in Sonoma Valley and the southern Mayacmas is also high on our list.

We are looking at the agricultural infrastructure of the county. And we will be working on the restoration of the Sonoma Baylands for years to come.

PRESS DEMOCRAT: What is a conservation easement, and what are Sonoma Land Trust's responsibilities on the 35 easements it holds?

BENSON: A conservation easement is an agreement by which a landowner permanently restricts what can be done with his or her property. It limits development, and it varies according to what the particular easement is intended to protect. It might be the scenic character of the land or its agricultural value, or forest land, or wild land.

Agencies such as the Open Space District can purchase conservation easements. The land trust accepts donations of easements, for which the donor may get income tax or estate tax benefits.

With conservation easements, the public gets the conservation values sought while leaving the land to be cared for in private ownership.

Easements are a serious responsibility for the land trust. We monitor our easements annually and need to be prepared to enforce them forever. That means we need to think long term at the land trust and build an institution that has staying power.

PRESS DEMOCRAT: In 2003, the Washington Post wrote a series of stories accusing the nation's largest land trust, The Nature Conservancy, of wide-ranging conflicts of interest, including doing real estate deals to benefit friends and insiders, profiting from business ventures and failing to enforce conservation easements. What does the Sonoma Land Trust do to avoid these pitfalls?

BENSON: I think it is fair to say that the articles were a salutary cold shower for not only the Nature Conservancy but also the entire land trust community.

Sonoma Land Trust takes the word "trust" seriously. We subscribe to the rigorous standards and practices promulgated by the Land Trust Alliance. We have a very engaged board of directors of community leaders, and we aspire to be among the leading civic institutions in Sonoma County.

We would like everyone who loves Sonoma County to join the Sonoma Land Trust and help, as our taglines says, to protect the land forever.

Source: “Saving land will pay off in future,” Press Democrat, March 27, 2005