LandThink

The pathway to conservation easements is not always a straight line but, more often than not, is worth the trip. [Dean Saunders, ALC] Conservation easements are powerful, effective tools available to landowners for the permanent conservation of private lands in the United States.

A few individuals love negotiating over property. Others prefer it to back pain but not by much. Most consider it another one of the endless, necessary miseries of adulthood.

“I’m thinking,” I said to my wife a month ago, “U. P.” “You first,” Melissa said. When you were voted second funniest in your high school class 45 years ago, you expect people to make runs at your title.

Fifty years ago, I stood on a stage at Morningside School, dressed as a British officer from 1758. My eighth-grade class was celebrating Pittsburgh’s Bicentennial. I was Colonel Henry Bouquet, second in command under General John Forbes who, though ill and litter-bound, had led 7,000 British soldiers and colonials across Pennsylvania to the Forks of the Ohio River.

My knowledge of wine is limited to the fact that there are reds and whites. In a wild year, I might drink three, maybe, four glasses; mainly for healthy-heart reasons. I wouldn’t know an earthy tone from dirt.