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Vermont Land Trust Conservation Stewardship
Program Philosophy, Outcomes & Principles
Vermont Land Trust believes that good
relationships with landowners not enforcement is the best immediate and
long-term method to guarantee that the integrity of conservation
easements are preserved. To that end, the goal of the Conservation
Stewardship Program is to build relations with owners of conserved land.
The outcomes of the Conservation Stewardship Program are best described
in terms of how we want conserved landowners and communities to
experience us. From their perspective we want to be viewed as:
accessible, efficient, and trustworthy. As a result of holding this
view, we hope owners of conserved land will understand their
conservation easement, feel part of a land conservation community, and
act as ambassadors of conservation. In addition, we have an obligation
to explain to landowners that the conservation easement is a binding
legal document that limits how their land is used. We will do our best
to accommodate landowner needs, however, there will be some requests
that we cannot approve.
To achieve these outcomes, our program is
designed to:
- work with landowners to ensure that
the purposes of the conservation easements are achieved
- establish good relationships with
owners of conserved land and serve as a source of valuable
information to landowners
- provide timely, responsive service
particularly as it relates to review and approval of landowner
requests
- ensure that violations do not occur
or if they do they are voluntarily corrected
Our actions and decisions are guided by
the following principles:
- How we operate is visible. The
policies, procedures and guidelines that govern our decisions are
written and available.
- Our focus is on protecting the
resource values stated in the conservation easement.
- We act in service to landowners.
Even though providing amendments and approvals is a significant part
of our work, we wish to act as partners in problem solving and not
be seen as just a source of approvals.
- Issues and problems are resolved
through collaboration to the greatest extent possible. Our goal is
to maximize landowner choice and control. We wish to be seen as a
source of information and solutions not just a source of approvals
or enforcement.
- Our interactions are based on
positive assumptions about landowners: that their actions are in
good faith and that landowners have the most knowledge of their
property. Unless proven otherwise, these assumptions inform all of
our interactions and decisions.
- Our interactions and decisions are
proportional to the resource value.
- We seek solutions that are the
simplest available so that landowner needs are met with a minimum of
bureaucratic red tape and conditions while still protecting the
resource values explicit in the conservation easement. We understand
that over time what is currently understood to be a best management
practice will change. As a result, the consistent application of
principals is balanced with flexibility and individual treatment.
Consistency in and of itself is not a goal, rather precedence only
serves as a starting point.
- We use our and the landowner’s time
and resources efficiently.
- We seek to avoid being seen as an
entity to be dealt with, or adversarial in our interactions.
- If the landowner is not prepared to
resolve issues that arise cooperatively, then we will explore all
other alternatives in order to preserve the resource values of the
conservation easement.
Implications of these principles:
- For Stewardship staffing: We cannot
be experts in all aspects of resource management. Therefore, our
education efforts are related to conservation easements not land
management. In our clearinghouse function our emphasis is on
resource referral, not direct technical assistance.
- For our conservation partners: VLT
has a variety of conservation partners. Vermont Housing and
Conservation Board and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and
Markets are the two partners with whom we co-hold many conservation
easements. We recognize that our partners may have different values
and philosophy that may result in different decisions about requests
from landowners. We work diligently to keep the effects of these
differences from resulting in divergent treatment of similarly
situated landowners based merely on who funded the purchase of their
conservation easement.
- For systems and work design:
Stewardship is downstream of much of our work. Internally, feedback
from Stewardship helps inform Field Team, CCC, and Development and
Communications decision making. Our database of completed work is
both a tool to help carry out our stewardship work, inform
organizational decision making, and to help “tell our story.”
- For communications: The existence of
the Conservation Stewardship Program is one of the ways we establish
and increase the credibility of our conservation work. To that end,
we seek to include the stewardship message in appropriate
organizational communications with an appropriate level of emphasis.
The stewardship message and the conservation message are not
discrete. Our best messages include how the two relate.
- For the long-term: Our work exists
in perpetuity. We do not and cannot fully comprehend the task of our
successors. We are open, therefore, to new methods and practices to
help develop and share what we believe to be a best practice.
Last revised November 2003
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