Every parcel preserved for the benefit of biological resources requires management involving some level of expense. If not planned in advance, management in perpetuity can escalate into a tremendous capital requirement. The ideal, of course, is to establish a funding source that provides enough income to cover annual stewardship costs and includes a buffer to offset inflation.

How Much Money Is Enough?

The basic yardstick for deciding how much is needed is the average annual cost of management over the very long term. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to determine this, and managers around the country are struggling to develop formulas for calculating these costs. The costs vary widely with the nature of the land, the type of protection (owned or under easement), the purpose of conservation (endangered species, visitor services, education), and further varies year by year.

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The Property Analysis Record

The Center for Natural Lands Management has developed a new tool, the Property Analysis Record (PAR). The PAR is a computerized database methodology that is extremely effective in helping land managers calculate the costs of land management for a specific project. The PAR helps analyze the characteristics and needs of the property from which management requirements are derived. It helps pinpoint management tasks and estimates their costs as well as the necessary administrative costs to provide the full cost of managing any property. The PAR generates a concise report which serves as a well-substantiated basis for long-term funding including endowments, special district fees, and other sources.

PAR Seminars

The Center presents the Property Analysis Record (PAR) methodology to land trusts, governmental agencies, environmental consultants, project proponents, and other interested parties throughout the U.S. through the seminar, "Planning Sustainable Conservation Projects." PAR software and a user's manual are provided to participants, and software is upgraded as new versions are introduced.

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The PAR Seminar enables participants to:

• Understand the need for long term stewardship;
• Readily determine and justify the long-term activities and financial requirements of a conservation project;
• Develop biologically and economically sustainable projects;
• Identify a complete array of management responsibilities;
• Provide an understanding of the financial components and financing mechanisms for stewardship;
• Provide an accurate tool to standardize management and costing methodologies;
• Increase communication and partnerships to produce cost-effective conservation projects.
• Use a project PAR for ongoing biological and financial management.

PAR Concepts

As a part of the PAR seminar, participants are taught short-term and long-term planning concepts; management techniques; methods of estimating tasks and budgets; methods of establishing financing, including endowments; and utilizing fees and special districts to fund the stewardship necessary to preserve the habitat in perpetuity.

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The Future

The PAR is being used by many organizations nation-wide. Seminars have been held by the Land Trust Alliance, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), the Trust for Public Land in California and the First National Mitigation Bank Conference in Washington D.C. Previous seminars have been jointly funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Dean Winter Foundation, ARC Foundation, and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.

Although the Center's primary focus has been on protecting California's species, habitats across the country will benefit from what we've been able to apply here in California. Each state faces their own challenges with conservation efforts. And because the PAR is a flexible tool, managers from other states will now learn the methodology and be able to apply that knowledge to their individual circumstances. A certain goal is to create datasets for the PAR appropriate for conditions in every part of the country.

The PAR software has been modified over the last several months to become even more useful to ongoing conservation management. In these new versions, the long-term budgets of the PAR can be modified using the basic techniques of the PAR to provide short-term budgets, work-schedules by individual, and the fund budgets needed by investment managers. Over the long-term, other management techniques such as GIS will be integrated into the PAR making the system more universally adaptable.

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Synopsis

There are many reasons for using the PAR. The initial reason is to anticipate and prepare for the costs of long-term management of the habitat. The ultimate reason is to create better, more sustainable conservation projects. The PAR embodies the recognition that to be sustainable ecologically, a conservation project must also be sustainable financially. Without planning in perpetuity, many of our conservation projects may only be temporary. The PAR helps overcome the difficulties of planning in perpetuity in a straight-forward and user-friendly manner.

If you are interested in attending a PAR seminar and receiving the seminar, please drop a line to:

CNLM, 425 E. Alvarado St. Su. H, Fallbrook, CA 92028 or

CNLM 464 NE Irving Ave., Bend, OR or e-mail Jetpace@AOL. com.

The cost of the seminar and software is $200 for nonprofits, $400 for governments, $600 for for-profit organizations, and $1,200 for a user license.

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A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT CORPORATION

Sherry Teresa
Executive Director
1808 Tribute Road, Suite B
Sacramento, CA 95815-4312
(916) 567-4180 FAX (916) 567-4190
email: cnlmpres@aol. com

The Center for Natural Lands Management was founded in 1990 and incorporated as a nonprofit tax exempt organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Service to protect biological resources through the long-term stewardship of mitigation and conservation lands. The Center is apolitical and does not lobby for or against projects. The main office is located in Sacramento, with satellite offices located in Kern, Santa Barbara, Riverside, and Orange Counties.

The Center is a unique and knowledgeable resource and cooperator with land trusts, conservation organizations, public agencies, developers and other land managers that require expertise in the management of environmentally sensitive lands. Merely setting lands aside and preventing development is not sufficient to preserve and protect biological integrity. Identifying the critical processes and elements that need protection, then planning, budgeting and funding for sustaining these processes and elements in perpetuity is the essence of long-term land protection.

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MISSION STATEMENT

The Center for Natural Lands Management is dedicated to preserving native plants and animals in their natural environments and protecting the diversity of species with consideration for their complicated interrelationships.

MANAGEMENT IN PERPETUITY

An outgrowth of our mission is a more fundamental, effective, and financially feasible method of managing and preserving functioning ecosystems in perpetuity. The Center for Natural Lands Management provides long-term responsibility for managing environmentally sensitive lands. These lands may experience a loss of biological productivity without appropriate stewardship which most organizations are unable to provide. The Center was established to provide this service. As a unique non-profit organization, the Center is well-suited to facilitate both public and private partnerships for the benefit of California's diverse habitats and species.

The Center will manage conservation lands on a contract basis, accept the donation of fee title, or conservation easements of these properties and their accompanying responsibilities, along with an appropriate funding source. By taking title to land, the Center is able to relieve project proponents of all long-term liabilities and responsibilities for mitigation lands.

Although land stewardship is our primary focus, the Center also consults with agencies and project proponents to develop and implement Habitat Conservation Programs (HCPs) and conservation banking programs for wetlands and endangered species. Our services also include preparation of habitat management plans and cost analysis reports, providing scientific monitoring and research on managed parcels, and training of conservation and land planners in developing sustainable conservation projects.

The Center for Natural Lands Management has developed a program to efficiently predict and outline management tasks and costs for creating an effective and efficient plan for managing lands with important biological resources. Developed by the Center, the Property Analysis Record (PAR), is a software program and database designed to accurately determine long-term and ongoing management activities and costs. The PAR program also assists in determining funding mechanisms for the management of lands in perpetuity.

Our analysis of conservation properties includes surveying, monitoring and reporting (including required agency monitoring and reporting), and maintenance of physical and biological resources. Also incorporated into the analysis is invasive exotic species control programs, fire management, educational and visitor service efforts and administrative expenses such as personnel, accounting, legal, and insurance items. This analysis is based upon the assumption that the resources will be managed in perpetuity and factors in the risk of sporadic natural and induced events that affect habitat areas.