MOUNT DESERT ISLAND, Maine - Developer Shepard Harris has spent summers in Maine since childhood, so he knows the state's vast stretches of unblemished space are precious. But his decision to keep this island's largest remaining piece of undeveloped land from being dotted with homes came down to something more pragmatic: a tax break.
Last Monday, a land preservation group paid $2 million for Harris's tract - 516 acres of forest and wetlands adjacent to Acadia National Park - about half of its appraised value. Harris, 54, said accepting a discounted price, getting a $2 million tax deduction, and pleasing the island's conservationists was more appealing to him than the prospect of clearing 50 or 60 house lots at a time when the real estate market remains stubbornly sluggish.
"Every day that goes by, I don't get a lot younger," Harris said. "The tax benefit helped - that's what made the deal work."
The sale of the prime parcel to Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a nonprofit whose mission is to save coastal land and islands from development, is an example of the gains conservationists are making in New England and across the country. With the housing industry in the doldrums, an increasing number of property owners are cutting their losses by selling land to environmental and preservation groups at attractive prices. That means more coveted islands, mountain ranges, and riverside plots are going into public trusts or coming under state protection....
I admit it all sounds great, the state(?) and trusts is going to preserve our environment; however, I can't help getting that EndGame thinking out of my head where the globalist are going to seal off vast lands and shovel us into cities.
Indeed, the down real estate market has provided an upside for conservationists, presenting them with enticing opportunities. In Massachusetts, for instance, the state recently paid $3 million for more than 840 acres in the foothills of the Berkshires, significantly less than the developer's original asking price. Two weeks ago, a coalition of nonprofits led by the Lincoln-based Massachusetts Audubon Society bought a 337-acre mountainous area in the Connecticut River Valley for $1.35 million from a bankrupt developer, who scrapped plans to build homes on the land.
"It really is one of the true silver linings of this downturn," said Robert Wilber, Mass. Audubon's director of land protection. "Important properties are being protected at a fraction of what they would have cost only a few years ago."
I'm sorry, but I just do not see a silver lining in this Grand Depression, and I resent the insulting implication.
Acadia National Park accounts for about 44 percent of Mount Desert Island's 69,000 acres. The scenic isle about 275 miles north of Boston is a bounty of nature. It features spectacular cliffs, winding bike paths that were once carriage roads, bare-topped mountains that appear more formidable because they rise from sea level, and the fjord-like majesty of Somes Sound. Mount Desert has also long been a favorite destination for the ultrarich. David Rockefeller, Martha Stewart, and Edward C. "Ned" Johnson III, head of Fidelity Investments, are among the many who own estates on the island....
And all of a sudden the EndGame doesn't seem that far out, does it?
the nonprofit secured a $1 million grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service....
Why couldn't they get it from the ultrarich crowd? That's like pocket change!
Realizing such opportunities will dissipate once the economy starts to grow faster, some conservationists are furiously trying to come up with cash to buy more land now. For instance, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust's fund-raising campaign has been expanded to focus on closing more deals.
Angela Twitchell, executive director of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, said her Maine nonprofit made a record number of small land purchases last year, including a prized farm land and riverside property. But it is not resting - the group plans to start a capital campaign this fall.
"We have some of the greatest opportunities in my career, and some of the biggest challenges," Twitchell said. "If you go back 10 to 12 years, [with] these big pieces of prime land for sale, there would be several developers willing to pay above fair market value."
The challenges include soliciting money from individual donors still stretched thin because of the recession's lingering effects.
Related:
The economic recovery turns 2: Feel better yet?
No, because the recovery is a lie -- unless you happen to be wealthy.
Also, some land owners remain hesitant to accept downsized property appraisals....
--more--"
Think they can find a plot of land for this guy?
"Remains of WWII airman finally home
Sixty-six years after dying with other airmen when their bomber crashed in the Philippines, Second Lieutenant Robert Emerson is back home in Norway, in western Maine. Emerson’s remains spent years in a swamp in the Philippines and decades at a Midwestern cemetery. The Sun Journal of Lewiston says they were even shipped to Hawaii before finally being positively identified through DNA analysis, not known decades ago. For years, Emerson lay interred in Missouri. A niece, Nancy Rock of Vermont, remembers a family tradition to send flowers to his grave every Memorial Day. Rock submitted a strand of Emerson’s mother’s hair to positively identify the long-lost airman. The US Department of Defense helped ensure that the remains wound up in their proper place.
Church bell found to be from lighthouse
The fog bell from a Massachusetts lighthouse that was toppled by a massive storm in 1851 has turned up at a church in Bryant Pond, Maine. Tim Harrison, editor of Lighthouse Digest, says the collapse of the Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse in the waters off Cohasset and Scituate is one of the most notable tragedies in US lighthouse history. Two lighthouse keepers were killed when the structure fell. But Harrison says the 650-pound fog bell was purchased at a salvage sale in the late 1850s and transported from Massachusetts to Maine. Fifty years later, it ended up in the belfry of the Bryant Pond Baptist Church, where it has been rung every Sunday for more than 100 years (AP)."
I'm hearing the dinner bell, dear readers.
Also see:
BAR HARBOR, Maine Popular lobster museum destroyed by fire
AUGUSTA, Maine Marine with local ties killed in combat
Maine prison house sells below assessed value
Gay marriage supporters plan referendum in Maine
“What is it about democracy that these groups don’t understand?’’
I was always told no meant no.
