CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hard times for real-estate developers mean good times for conservationists as plummeting property values put tens of thousands of additional acres of historic and scenic property within their reach.
While not every market has softened, conservationists have had significant success in Florida, the Southwest and parts of California, said Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit that helps conserve land as parks, historic sites and rural lands.
Since last fall, the trust alone has preserved nearly 1,000 acres once targeted for housing in Georgia, New Hampshire, Oregon, Minnesota and Massachusetts.
Among the deals the trust still hopes to broker: land overlooking the scenic New River Gorge National River in West Virginia and miles of pristine beaches on the north shore of Oahu in Hawaii.
“It’s the green lining of the current market,” Rogers said.
There’s also a silver lining: Permanently protecting land from development can help drive up values of nearby property.
Foreclosure notices nationwide rose 53 percent in June, compared with a year earlier, while sales of existing homes fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million units — the lowest level in more than a decade.
The Trust for Public Land, which uses a pool of money to buy property until other land trusts and governments can raise enough money to buy it, is just one conservation group seizing upon the opportunity to permanently protect land from development.
