Has anyone bought a large amount of private land for animal <span title="conservation/preservation?">conservation/preservation...</span>

Question

I'm interested to buying a large tract of land upon retirement that simply serves the purpose of land/animal preservation. Has anyone here done this? Which state would be best to purchase a large amount of land for say 5-6 million dollars? Has anyone hired employees to assist in creating ideal environments? Are there grants available? Have you bought into/donated to land trusts? Sorry for so many questions, but there are so many to ask on this subject. Thanks for any answer.

Answer 1

A very good idea ,for funding you can find out from your local conservation groups I am sure they will be able to offer some advice.

Answer 2

I will give you a letter i got from a cousin who is trying to keep  land that is owned by the county as a sanctuary.this is in florida

To show you that there are bodies that can be roped in in all kinds of ways to assist with permits and assistance

Quote:

It consists of 3,000 acres and we have 568 acres adjoining the Gulf of Mexico on which no construction is permitted. It is a protected mangrove estuary. But in the early 90&#039;s some mangroves started to undergo stress (probably due to a road which was build to the north cutting off some of the water flow) - this area eventually ended up growing to 50 acres of dead mangroves. Since that time we have invested over $4,000,000 to open up new small channels, etc which permit adequate flushing, and the area has now recovered and is covered with white and red mangroves.

The  estuary is actually owned by the County (government), but since the die off of mangroves was affecting the estuary local residents got involved and after two year received a ten-year permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers (USACoE) - the latter because we wanted to dredge the main (and only) pass to the Gulf, and dig small channels (80,000 feet - hand dug) to improve flushing and avoid &quot;puddling&quot;. We got some money from the original developer, we tax ourselves for part and the County reimburses us for part of the expenses. We tried grants, but not available. Our permit expires in 2008, and in fact today I have a meeting with our environmentalist as well as an administrator to review an application to extend our permit.



Indeed we have alligators, although at this time of the year they tend to disappear into deeper waters where they are not visible. We have a berm (like a d**e) that seperates the fresh storm water run-off from the more saline laden estuary water. There are culverts in the berm which slowly release the storm water into the estuary. (We have 46 ponds with pipes, culverts etc which slowly bring storm water toi the east of the berm - also some fountains and bubblers to aereate the water and to remove fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, etc.



A small path is on top of the berm ansd from there you can best see wildlife. This March on one day I counted five adult (6 feet or over) alligators; 4 smaller ones 3&#039;-4&#039;; and 13 babies who were born in December. But now the only one I saw yesterday was the mother (of the baies) and a 3 footer. We get a lot of birds: storks, roseate spoonbills, ibises, herons, ducks, &quot;moore hens&quot;, etc.

In Naples we do have a Conservancy of Southwest Florida that has a series of opportunities such as:

Nature Store

Walking trails

Wildlife rehabilitation center

&quot;Discovery&quot; center

Electric boat tour through a river

Canoe &amp; Kayak rentals



The Consernacy is very active in fighting real estate encroachments into sensitive areas as well as research in estuaries and mangroves.

We do have problems with people. We have trails and - especially in the winter time - alligators are readily visible within 2 to 5 meters. (In summer they appear to go deeper into the mangroves to get away from the heat and perhaps in search of a better food supply). We then have visitors who see a seven foot alligator - get scared that the alligator will attack - and call a service to have the alligator removed. We have now changed the system so that any removal must first be approved by us - which we do not give.

end of quote

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so the bottom line is that ,always people are the problem unless you are well protected both by law and physically ,meaning a perimeter.

And if you find a place with animals that are in danger of extinction it will help a lot in getting assistance and permits.

It also pays to be friendly with university bodies ,to have the pace available for wild life research.

In Guerrero in Mexico we got a project through because PROFEPA ,found several species of plants ,and birds that were unique .So an Analise&#039;s by an environmental government body carries a lot of weight,It is a point to consider whilst choosing a place ,

Don`t try to do it all alone progress is a very strong invading force and we need all the forces we can muster to keep it at bay.

read my general answer on Eco tourism ,

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

,a great money generator but it has to be very well controlled and managed,

I have been involved in South Africa with setting up various Eco tourist situations ,and worked here in Mexico some time for the department of Ecology of a rural town

Answer 3

Keeps getting hotter you need to head north still lots of land and we still have water .

Answer 4

Sorry I do not know about grants and land trusts, but my father in law bought a whole bunch of land in Canada(where I am from) and he is preserving it.  Logging companies want the land very badly because of the valuable trees, but he refuses to sell.  The problem is that the land needs to either be very large or be connected to other intact forests to make a sort of corridor for the animals. We have many deer, moose, foxes, bears, wolves and a lot of birds.  I also know of an American that owned 100&#039;s of acres of land in Australia just to preserve it and eventually gave it to the conservation society.  So yes people do it and it works very well if you get enough land.  I hope you find out all you need to know and good luck, the world needs more people like you.