Plans for Coming Year (1999)

August 27, 1998

Dear Member,

I am writing you to let you - as a valued supporter of Kachemak Heritage Land Trust -- know what Kachemak Heritage Land Trust will be working on in the year ahead. I would like also to ask for your help in building a training fund for our staff to ensure that we continue to provide the best in land trust advice and practice. As you know, we have expanded to serve the entire Kenai Peninsula, with offices in Homer, Soldotna and Seward.

Due to the success we have had over the past year and the subsequent increase in interest in our program and services, and to gain from the quickly evolving world of information available, we would like to build a training fund. Each year, the national professional association of land trusts, called the Land Trust Alliance, hosts a several day conference for more than 1,000 land trust staff, volunteers, public agency staff, attorneys, consultants, funders and other land conservationists from across the country. I would like to be able to send my staff to this important conference which will be held in October in Madison, Wisconsin this year, as I feel it provides an unparalleled opportunity to become immersed in the complexities of current land trust issues. Additionally, the four Alaskan land trusts, led by KHLT, have begun to hold annual meetings in Anchorage each year to ensure that there is state wide consistency and quality in our work. Finally, throughout the year various excellent training opportunities arise which will likewise increase our capacity to provide people with effective conservation tools. A contribution to our training fund from you will help us to attend the best of these training sessions so that we might be better able to conserve significant land on the Kenai Peninsula.

It is important to us that you understand the work we have planned to accomplish over the next year. As always, we will concentrate our efforts over the next twelve months on the continuation of our proactive land protection strategy peninsula- wide.

Our existing land protection strategy strives for the permanent protection of significant wildlife ecosystems in three areas of most pressing need: rapidly diminishing wildlife habitat along the Homer bench, riparian habitat along the

Resurrection River, and extremely threatened salmon-rearing habitat along the renowned Kenai River. KHLT intends to protect high quality natural habitat in these priority areas, and in other important areas as we become aware of them, by acquiring conservation easements and land of significant natural value.

Over the coming year we intend to do the following:

1. Complete a landowner survey of the Kachemak City portion of the Homer bench of approximately 200 landowners to determine natural areas of local significance and landowner sensitivities; and

2. Continue proactive outreach efforts to share our services and knowledge through presentations, advertising and other forms of contact to landowners along seven key canyon corridors on the Homer bench and at the head of Kachemak Bay that are critical for winter moose habitat and important for black bears and other wildlife;

3. Complete our expanded resource mapping project which consists of creating a series of base maps and overlays depicting identified concentrations of natural values in our Peninsula-wide area and the development pressures affecting them. This will include use of borough maps that depict property ownership, use of topographical maps, and development of a series of map overlays delineating significant areas of natural value;

4. Based upon the results of the mapping project, we will identify and contact owners of key parsels along both the Resurrection River floodplain and in the Kenai River watershed to introduce them to the protection options we offer to preserve these fragile ecosystems. Two conservation easements protecting over 3300 feet of riparian habitat on the Kenai River, completed in 1996 will serve as models;

5. Educate Kenai Peninsula landowners about the variety of options land trusts offer to permanently protect significant natural values of their land through public presentations, a wide variety of advertising methods, direct mail and individual landowner contact;

6. Administer grant funds to hold a series of five community meetings to envision and plan a town center and greenway far the Homer Central Business District working in partnership with the Homer Town Square Committge, the City of Homer and private landowners. Through this project, we hope to focus the community on thoughfful planning and create an environment of cooperation among the City administration, the business community, and the citizens of Homer concerned with developing a more economically viable and esthetically pleasing downtown area. The Preliminary Site Survey defining the environmental constraints and project opportunities has been completed as the first phase of this project .

7. Produce a promotional video in partnership with Thg Nature Conservancy and the Kenai Watershed Forum describing the many benefits of land conservation to use in outreach presentations and to send to Kenai Peninsula property owners.

8. Conduct a summer program of activities to raise funds and encourage appreciation of the natural beauty around our Kenai Peninsula communities and of the value of land conservation, and

9. Work cooperatively with the three other Alaskan land trusts to forge an "ln Lieu Fee Program" with the Army Corps of Engineers in order to provide a viable mitigation option ior wetland development permit applicants;

10. Distribute our semi-annual newsletters and conduct outreach presentations to civic organizations, conservation groups, attorneys, real estate agents, and on local radio stations to explain our strategy for contributing to the quality of life on the Kenai Peninsula by working with willing landowners. Our outreach efforts will also include a special edition newsletter bulk-mailed to Kenai Peninsula residents, and one educational seminar for landowners and professionals who are associated with land transactions and planning, and;

11. Continue to recruit, train, and use volunteers to actively assist in our program, and pursue as many applicable training opportunities as possible for staff in order to most effectively conserve land. We will also play a major role in organizing the second annual Alaskan Land Trust meeting to help ensure a consistent and high quality of land conservation statewide.

12. Once the mapping project is completed, we will prepare a traveling display to be used as a public outreach tool. It will help us to provide the public with scientific information about how our land trust functions and where the areas of significant concentrations of natural values are located on the Kenai Peninsula. The mapping inventory is intended to expedite our conservation goals and increase our visibility on the Peninsula, thus leading us to a larger role in shaping the character of our communities. We will also these maps and overlays in our annual planning process and in the prioritization of our daily work.

13. We anticipate increasing the number of conservation easements across our service area, and expect continued support for our efforts as demonstrated by an increase of at least 300 in our membership rolls. More conservation easements will result in the preservation of crucial wildlife habitat for generations to come.

Conservation easements do not drop like ripe plums into our basket. Many hours of research and negotiation are required to resolve the complicated issues involved in deciding how to best protect a conservation property whether it is through a conservation easement or land acquisition. Development rights that are compatible with the conservation restrictions must be carefully described so future owners will know what activities are allowed on a property protected by a conservation easement. The process to complete a conservation easement is time consuming and complex. It includes a site visit, preliminary discussions with a landowner, gathering support from agencies, title work, baseline documentation, conservation easement drafting and legal review, and board of directors' review.

Conservation easements must also meet strict IRS requirements to qualify as a charitable donation. We must prepare land management pians for properties we acquire in order to guide future decisions regarding appropriate uses for these lands in light of their conservation value and the donor's wishes. Additionally, each property we have acquired and each conservation easement we hold must be carefully monitored at least annually to ensure that its current condition is consistent with the terms of the property's conservation easement.

I hope that this information is of interest to you as a supporter. I am asking for your assistance in developing a training fund so that our staff be better able to to provide the best in land conservation to our peninsula neighborhood. Thank you for your continuing support!

Sincerely,

Barbara Seaman Executive Director

P.S. Our website address is http://www.xyz.net/~khltkbr/