Conserving Land
When we talk about conserving land, we are using "land" in the Aldo Leopold sense where land is equivalent to the ecologist's term "ecosystem," meaning the interacting whole of landform, soil, water, and atmosphere and all the associated organisms--the plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. Ecosystems can be little, like a small pond, middle-sized like a 40-acre woodlot, big like a watershed, or really big like the Earth.
The commonsense and also the dictionary definition of "conserve" is to protect from harm or loss, and that is how the term is used here. Land conservation is protecting ecosystems from loss or harm. Most often, we are talking about protecting natural ecosystems, but we can also speak of farmland conservation, for example, meaning preventing the farmland landscape from being turned into agricultural factory sites or housing developments.
Some older definitions of conservation bring in the term "resources," but that term in this usage is strictly anthropocentric. The resources being talked about are not the soil factors a lupine plant needs to grow and flower or the water chemistry and temperature a creek chub needs to survive. The resources listed in the old-time conservation books are such things as forests; gas and oil; coal; ores; and game and fur-bearers. They are, in other words, factors used in the life and commerce of a single species of animal: people.
Many individuals are highly conservation minded and set aside their own private nature preserves. These individuals protect the vegetation and animals and the other natural feaures of the land. It's a highly satisfactory arrangement; they're able to enjoy the land and invite neighbors and friends and other nature lovers in to join them. If they'd like to entice wood ducks to nest, they put up wood duck houses. If there's a site where native prairie could grow and attract butterflies, they restore it. Neighbors, cruising timber buyers, township officials, and developers of all sizes and shapes may have opinions about what ought to be done with the land, but the owners can give these opinions only as much weight as they choose.
Throughout the conservation-minded land owners' lifetime, the land will continue to be preserved, but often the conservation ends with their death. Their heirs may not be interested in conservation, or the land may have to be sold to settle the estate. Perhaps a second generation may continue the preservation, but a third may not.
Land conservation by individuals is an important part of conservation, but it rarely lasts for more than a couple of lifetimes and usually less. Permanent protection of land is almost always by government or private non-profit conservation organizations, especially land trusts.
This text and the photograph of Hoffman Pond at the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy's Hidden Marsh Sanctuary copyright © 2003 Richard Brewer
