Mark Schiltz continues family tradition of saving open spaces
By David Reese, Bigfork Eagle, Mont. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The starlings had just arrived back at Joe Brenneman's place near Creston.
Walking down from his house to his pasture, Brenneman paused briefly to listen to the birds' enthusiastic singing -- the first of the spring.
Brenneman has been on this land a long time. He grew up here and managed the family's dairy farm until last fall, when he sold all his cows to a
Brenneman is a former
He's working with the Montana Land Reliance to put the land into a conservation easement that would forever keep it in agriculture production.
The
A conservation easement is a perpetual, legal obligation that a landowner places on their property. An easement usually requires that the land be used only for agriculture and cannot be subdivided or developed. Organizations like the Montana Land Reliance often purchase easements from a landowner to protect the land. A landowner can also donate an easement.
Schiltz's family worked with the Montana Land Reliance to place a conservation easement on their land near
The Montana Land Reliance, founded in 1978, focuses on preserving land in the
The Reliance has 10,000 acres under easement in the
Schiltz said a common perception of conservation easements is that a landowner gives up control of their land when they sell or place an easement on it. "People think you have to give up management, and that's not true," he said. "An easement protects open space but doesn't tell you what to do with it. And all easements are different."
Prior to the economic recession that started in 2008, the land-conservation movement was gaining momentum. But when appraisals started to drop during the recession, and there was less pressure from developers on landowners to sell, landowners started to postpone deciding on an easement, Schiltz said.
Conservation easements have held steady in the last few years, but with land prices starting to increase again, there will come more pressure to develop to it, he said.
Estate planning is a time when a conservation easement may come up within a family that owns acreage. For his family, Schiltz said his mother and her brother had the debate 20 years ago over what to do with the family farm. "We had that crisis," he said. "It was a hard discussion, but we used an easement to figure things out."
The easement his mother, Bigfork native
Often it's a family transfer of land -- not development -- that takes large pieces of land out of production, Schiltz said. Family transfers continue to split up agricultural land. "The biggest complaint ag producers have is they don't have enough land to run a cow/calf operation," Schiltz said.
AT the Brenneman farm north of
"I still have cows around," Brenneman said, "I just don't have to milk them."
His custom-beef operation may be the direction he's headed. Brenneman's work is tied to the land and always will be.
On a shed behind his house lies a head from a deer that a family member harvested last fall. There are small signs all around the Brenneman place of lives tied very closely to the land. There is even a fenced-up garden to keep the deer out.
This is the land where Brenneman has built a life -- and raised a family. "I haven't gone very far," he said.
A conservation easement means the next generations will maintain that tie to the land. When he and his father began discussions with the Montana Land Reliance about an easement, Brenneman said his father was at first wary of the idea. "But he liked the potential for income and keeping the land," Brenneman said.
There are easements on the land up and down the
His farm will help feed the
"We actually do get our food from the ground," he said.
Schiltz started a project three years ago called the
Open space helps preserve land values in the
The Roth family, whose namesake created the Roth IRA, recently placed a conservation easement on 738 acres in the
"The next generation may or may not have those same values," he said.
"I joined the Montana Land Reliance because of my passion for the land."
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(c)2014 The Bigfork Eagle (Bigfork, Mont.)
Visit The Bigfork Eagle (Bigfork, Mont.) at www.flatheadnewsgroup.com/bigforkeagle/
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