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Conservation easements are really not as difficult to understand as you might think at first. We all tend to get dragged into the details – sort of being “dragged down into a rabbit hole.” That is usually because we have thought about something that we do not want to see happen on our land, like clearing trees, hunting, or having the land covered with pavement and houses. Yes, we need to address those concerns in a conservation easement, but that’s not where we need to start.

I have learned a whole lot from my time teaching little girls at camp how to carve. When starting on a new carving of something like a bird, they would always start working on a detail, such as the beak, rather than rounding the body or making the neck for the head to sit upon. Naturally, they’d cut off the beak and then cry, and we’d have to start all over. We all learned from those episodes that we must first see the big picture before working on the details.

So, what does woodcarving with children have to do with conservation? Well, it has to do with how we plan for something that we’ve never done before. Most of us have never considered what our land will look like in the future.

The first question must be, “In 50 years, when you are looking down at your land, what do you want to see?” 

Answering that question will take a while, with much thought and imagination. First, we’ll say “I want it to stay just like it is now,” but that won’t likely happen without us making some ‘rules’ as to the permitted and prohibited land uses for future owners. And then, we must think about what living conditions might be like in 2075. Will people in Polk County need to live off the land as did our grandparents? Can we simply say ‘no tree cutting’ if some kind of invasive trees are taking over, or will our forests in 2075 be all poplars and evergreens and the deer and squirrels have nothing to eat? And “can we put in more roads, or houses, or pastures with fencing, or ponds…?” 

The questions can go on and on and on, but this is where we need to start. Try writing down some “do’s” and “do not’s” and put that paper in the desk to look at later. Imagine, dream, and see what feels best. Then you may be ready to make a decision, and then it’ll be time to deal with those darn details. Dream of the best scenario and then focus on making that dream come true.

You may remember a Corner I wrote years ago titled ‘God Invented Glue.’ The gist of the story was that my young camp carvers nearly always started with the details rather than thinking about the total shape of what they were carving. Because they were not thinking about the entire shape of the bird, they cut the beak off their bird after I had told them repeatedly to ‘stay away from the beak.’ They were focused on the details. When they started to cry, the only positive answer that I could give them was, “God invented glue.” 

From then on, whenever a camper cut off a beak or leg, she’d run into the back room to glue that broken piece back on their carving. After that mistake, she would start working on the carving as a whole and then focus on the details.

No, God did not invent conservation easements (nor glue), but someone dreamed about what our world might look like in the future if we had a vision, and worked in a positive way to make that vision a reality. It can be complicated, and the devil is in the details). Preserving land can involve many people, but it can be done if we all work together. 

God created the earth and everything in it. We must honor and protect that life-giving gift.