In the News...  Articles of interest concerning Conservation Easements.  Click any link below for a synopsis and link to the full article.

Horizon Wind Defines Responsible Energy Development

Horizon Wind Energy, LLC, a leading wind project developer, owner, and operator, signed an agreement today with the Ranchland Trust of Kansas [RTK] and The Nature Conservancy of Kansas [Conservancy] that demonstrates an unprecedented investment by a wind farm developer in prairie ecosystem conservation. Horizon Wind Energy will invest in a 20,000-acre offsite habitat restoration program, including an anticipated 13,100 acres of permanent conservation easements, which will benefit numerous species of grassland birds, with targeted benefits for the greater prairie-chicken.  Horizon’s investment agreement, brokered by Wayne Walker Conservation Consulting LLC, will supplement additional investment provided by wildlife conservation groups and state and federal agencies. The purpose of this venture is to offset the potential on-site impacts of Horizon’s Meridian Way Wind Farm on the greater prairie-chicken and other grassland species. According to the agreement, the Conservancy may advance loans to RTK, if needed, to assure timely completion of major habitat restoration and protection work.  Ranchland Trust of Kansas will hold and manage the associated conservation easements.

Click here for the full text of the article as a PDF document (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Wide Open Spaces: Conservation Easement Protects Historic Ranchland from Development

    - By Mark Parker, Farm Talk (Cover Story)

      May 13, 2008

There are places in the Kansas Flint Hills where it’s damned inconvenient to find a convenience store and the nearest Wal-Mart isn’t near at all.

It’s a sea of native range, speckled with cattle, spilling out over every horizon and reaching back across history.

It’s wide open spaces and a ranching legacy teeming with tales of people and places that brought us to here and now.

Jim and Cathy Hoy would like to keep it that way. On December 20 of 2007, the Hoys donated a conservation easement on 655 acres of Flint Hills ranchland north of Cassoday to the Ranchland Trust of Kansas.

 

Click here for the full text of the article as a PDF document (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Hoy Family Strives to Keep Wide Open Spaces

    - By Beth Gaines-Riffel, Grass & Grain

       May 20, 2008

“Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above — don't fence me in.

Let me ride through the wide open country that I love — don't fence me in.

Let me be by myself in the evening breeze, listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees, send me off forever, but I ask you please — don't fence me in.”

No truer song could be sung when it comes to the love for the land of Jim and Cathy Hoy and their children and grandchildren. Although the land may have been fenced and you are prone to travel the gravel roads via pickup truck rather than horseback (but not necessarily so) the passion of the open prairie is strong for this ranch family that has deep roots in the Butler County soil.

 

Click here for a PDF of the full article (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

For more information on any of these items, please e-mail Mike Beam or call him at 785.273.5115.