The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Ranchers Bill and Maggie Haw of Shawnee Mission recently donated a conservation easement on 3,120 acres of native rangeland to The Nature Conservancy. The conservation easement protects land located south of Cottonwood Falls in Chase County, in the heart of the Flint Hills. Last year, the Haws also donated a conservation easement on more than 10,400 acres to the Conservancy, which was the largest in Kansas history.

The latest easement brings the Haws's total contribution of donated conservation easements to more than 13,500 acres.

Native grasslands, especially tallgrass prairies, are symbolic of Kansas' heritage, but the tallgrass prairie is the most-altered major habitat type in North America, in terms of acres lost.

In Kansas, however, a significant swath of tallgrass prairie that makes up the Flint Hills landscape remains relatively intact. The Flint Hills area represents the last opportunity to preserve an intact and functioning tallgrass prairie ecosystem. The Nature Conservancy has identified this landscape as a priority for conservation, and is actively working here to maintain its unfragmented nature and wildlife.

The Nature Conservancy is using conservation easements to help protect this last landscape of tallgrass prairie.

A conservation easement is a legally recorded agreement between the landowner and a land trust that limits in perpetuity a property's uses in order to protect its conservation values. Because the land remains in private ownership, with the remainder of the rights intact, property protected by an easement continues to provide property taxes and other economic benefits. Only incompatible uses of the land are restricted. Grazing, burning, and other ecologically compatible agricultural uses are typically allowed.

The Conservancy reaches out to private landowners, like Bill and Maggie Haw, in order to benefit the larger landscape for future generations, according to a news release from the Conservancy. The recent Haw donation brings the total Flint Hills easement acreage held by the Conservancy to 20,368 acres.

The Nature Conservancy is a private, non-profit organization established in 1951 to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.

To date, the Conservancy and its one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 117 million acres in the United States and 27 countries around the world, the news release stated.

The Kansas Chapter of the Nature Conservancy has helped conserve more than 77,000 acres of natural land throughout the state of Kansas. More information about The Nature Conservancy and the Kansas Prairie Legacy Campaign, is available on the Web at nature.org/Kansas or by calling 785-233-4400.