Appalachian Land & Conservation Services Co., LLC was conceived in 2003 by Josh First, its President and CEO, after a career in environmental protection and natural resource conservation that spanned the US EPA in Washington, DC, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, the Conservation Fund, and the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy.
The firm is based on the premise that the best way to protect the environment is to buy it, either for public ownership or for private conservation buyers, because regulation is too onerous and contentious and rarely hits its mark, education takes a long time, and private stewardship rarely resists the profit motive. The role of Appalachian is to use every-day private market forces to conserve open space, protect watersheds and wildlife habitat, scenic and historic areas, and to create environmental credits.
Virtually all open space conservation now undertaken in America is done so by non-profit land trusts and public agencies; the amount protected through “smart growth” or “green” development is, unfortunately, negligible. Private land is protected either with conservation easements or by outright fee-simple purchase. State forests and national parks are examples of land that was conserved by public agencies through fee-simple purchase, and nature preserves open to the public and held by groups like the Nature Conservancy and the Lancaster County Conservancy are examples of private land conservation efforts. Examples of “green” development are few, although it is catching in certain areas. Perhaps the best known or most easily recognized use of conservation easements is farmland protection, in which Pennsylvania proudly leads the nation.
The challenge of open space protection today is that there is not nearly enough money available either to public agencies or private land trusts to protect as much land as is needed, even as development pressure and sprawl spread across the nation at a tremendous rate. This financial deficit begs for additional tools. Enter Appalachian...
Appalachian’s approach creates a totally unique, new, and powerful toolset that combines pragmatic conservation values and goals with the traditional market forces that drive normal real estate transactions every day. The result is more protected land, at a faster rate, at no cost to land trusts.
Our focus is on protected working landscapes, where people are connected to the land. Protecting open land does not always have to be a choice between no development and much; the pragmatic half-a-loaf-is-better-than-no-loaf philosophy is often all that is needed to make tough conservation projects succeed and turn win-lose, or even lose-lose situations into win-win results and quality products of lasting value for wildlife, watersheds and humans alike.
Conserving open space in perpetuity is a noble effort, and it requires every possible tool available.
If you have a large rural property that you would like to sell but also have it remain in its current open state, please contact us. We have a solution to fit your needs. |
Josh First, President & CEO of Appalachian Land & Conservation Services Co., LLC |
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