Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: preserving land forever.

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

From:  <netmail!BARANSKI [at] VEAMF1.NL.NUWC.NAVY.MIL>

>I guess I just don't see dicotomize animals into wild/pet, good/bad, 
in the way
>you do...

Yeah, like most environmental issues, it's a matter of values.  Having 
Predatory pets eat rodents vs having weasels, owls or coopers hawks eat 
rodents is not necessarily a "rational" choice. The rodents still get 
eaten.  By allowing the native predators a chance at our rodents it 
makes us (Sharingwood) feel we are making less of an impact on the 
native wildlife.  There is also the intangable of just having native 
predators around. We have a weasel den, nesting owls and coopers hawks 
and watching them and having them be a part of our landscape makes us 
feel good.  The fact they are around and breed on our property 
indicates a healthy ecosystem balance, something that we take pride in 
and feel good about.  That value of maintaining a healthy ecosystem 
balance is one of the "core values" of our community.  Our greenbelt is 
set up to be unsellable and our intention is that this chunk of 
undeveloped land will be around long after the existing members are all 
gone. Another "core value" which frames us as who we are.

Passing on these core values to new members is crucial to the 
sustainability of the vision which formed the community in the first 
place.  If the people who come in after us don't share those values, 
then the vision of preserving a chunk of land in perpetuity is lost.  
We are currently working on a scheme to preserve our greenbelt through 
a cooperative land trust so that Sharingwood holds one "vote" out of 6. 
The remaining other 5 land trust owners would gain no benefit from the 
sale of the land and would be unlikely to vote to sell it.  In this 
way, even if the membership of Sharingwood should garner the 90% vote 
required to sell the property as set up in the bylaws, or should vote 
to change the percentage required to sell, the Sharingwood owners would 
have to convince 5 other land trust members to allow the sale to 
happen, which hopefully never would occur.....

If anyone knows of another way to preserve land in perpetuity so that 
it can not be sold in the future I would be intersted to hear about it.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood Cohousing