For some of us, the Lakes Region is a few weeks each summer — family, friends, beaches and woodlands — that have been a tradition for as long as we can remember. For others, it’s simply home. Either way, most of us can trace our sense of belonging back to a special place: a summer camp, a family cottage or a piece of shoreline. And most of us carry a quiet assumption that this special place will still be there for others to enjoy.
That assumption is being tested. An influx of people are looking to buy or build a special place of their own in the Lakes Region. Rising land values make some camps worth more money sold than run. And importantly, a wave of landowners are now weighing what happens to their property when they’re no longer the ones making decisions about it. More landowners seem to be reaching the same conclusion: your time with the land isn’t forever, but your decisions about it can be.
Many in the Lakes Region have given land to camps and community organizations believing the land itself was the gift. But land doesn’t protect itself. The paperwork behind the gift — a deed, a trust, an easement — is what does the work. Done well, that paperwork can make a promise outlast the people who made it.
Some are finding out now that those protections were not built for forever. Most recently, Camp Menotomy — a 95-acre camp on Lake Winnipesaukee and some of the last undeveloped shoreline — is now the subject of litigation over a trustee-proposed sale to a developer. The case is still working through the courts, and we don’t know how it will turn out. The original Trust arrangements could have been just as heartfelt as any, but good intentions aren’t enough on their own. However, there are organizations and legal tools to help people make and keep that commitment to the land a forever one.
Land trusts use conservation easements. A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement in which a landowner permanently limits certain uses of their property — like development — in order to protect its natural, scenic or agricultural value, even after the land is sold or passed down. The landowner can retain title to, and use of, the land, and a succession plan can be written directly into the agreement. In working with an accredited land trust, you have someone responsible for monitoring, enforcing and defending that agreement once the well-meaning authors of the commitment are gone.
Whether you’re planning for your land now or reviewing something set up decades ago, here are a few things you can do now:
- Review all the paperwork, including conservation deed, leases or trust documents. Include everyone with interest in the land — siblings, spouses, heirs to create a shared understanding of now and what’s next.
- Use specific language instead of open-ended standards when building your plan to avoid someone making a judgement call later.
- Separate land ownership from the entity enforcing the restriction and name a backup enforcer who can act if the primary holder can’t or won’t.
- Collaborate with an established, well-resourced land trust with the legal capacity and dedicated funding to monitor and defend the restriction for generations.
- And if you do not have land to give, stewardship funds and monitoring programs are what help ensure a lasting commitment to the land. A bequest, a membership, or a volunteer hour all support the same goal — keeping the land we love, working for the people and wildlife who depend on it, forever.
If you’re the one deciding what happens to a special place in the Lakes Region, don’t solely rely on good intentions. Call your local land trust. It’s a short conversation that gets us started today for a commitment that can last forever.
Lindsay Rosa, Ph.D., is a lifelong conservationist with deep New England roots and currently resides in Moultonborough. Lindsay is the Executive Director of the Lakes Region Conservation Trust and can be reached at lrosa@lrct.org.