LandThink

Conservation easements vary a lot, although all are supposed to serve some public interest. Some are sold, but most are donated. They are usually sold or donated in perpetuity, though some have limited terms.

I talked with an old friend last week about selling a large New England farm that’s been in his family since the 1930s. The farm is in a pretty setting, at the foot of publicly owned mountains. Land prices have risen dramatically during the last 15 years, driven by second-home buyers and retirees from southern New England and, primarily, the Boston area.

No buffalo roamed on Hawthorne Street in Pittsburgh where I grew up.

Saturday morning before things start is a good time to begin most anything. Like a first draft of this column. I was in front of the screen by 6, emitting coffee exhausts. Nothing. I played FreeCell. Still nothing. More FreeCell. More nothing.

About 10.6 million privately owned acres — an area about twice the size of Connecticut — now carry conservation easements. This land base is growing by more than one million acres annually.