Comments on Land Trusts and the Choice to Conserve Land with Full Ownership or Conservation Easements

摘要

Nick Parker's examination of land trust decision making is of great interest to environmentalists, social scientists, and policy makers. His article is of particular interest to those who seek a better understanding of how private property rights affect and are affected by the growing land trust phenomenon. But rather than focus on their phenomenal growth and why there are land trusts, Parker seeks to get inside the box of the land trust, the not-for-profit firm itself, and explain the logic of choice that is applied when those organizations have the opportunity to receive ownership of particular land rights. Will the trust decide to hold conservation easements for the rights in question or will the trust seek the full bundle of land rights-fee simple? This is the motivating question for the article.