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COMMON GROUND VOL. 12 NO . 1 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2000 w3 Q
<br /> TRACTS
<br /> After battling for years over development, Studies of three watersheds in the upper
<br /> conservation and business interests in the Midwest show that municipal, industrial
<br /> Austin, Texas , area have formed the Hill and agricultural operations could dramati-
<br /> Country Conservancy . Its goal : to protect cally reduce water cleanup costs by incorpo-
<br /> 50, 000 acres of watershed, ranchland and rating nutrient trading into conventional
<br /> open space overlying the Barton Springs cleanup programs . In one case, it was esti-
<br /> Edwards Aquifer . The nonprofit group (512 / mated to cost $2 . 90 for every pound of phos -
<br /> 328-2481 , www . hillcountryconservancy . org) , phorus removed through the use of nutrient
<br /> formed by the Greater Austin Chamber of trading versus $24 using conventional pollu-
<br /> Commerce, Real Estate Council of Austin tion reduction approaches . Nutrient trading
<br /> and Save Our Springs Alliance , announced makes it profitable for pollution sources with
<br /> its first acquisition in September . It secured low treatment costs to reduce effluents below
<br /> an option to buy development rights to the legal requirements , obtain credits and sell
<br /> 5 , 820-acre Storm Ranch for $ 10 million . Pro- them to dischargers with high treatment Many thanks to these
<br /> tecting 50 , 000 acres could cost $300 million, costs . " Fertile Ground : Nutrient Trading' s recent donors to the
<br /> said George Cofer, the group ' s director . The Potential to Cost Effectively Improve Water COMMON GROUND
<br /> group will seek funding from public and prism Quality, " by the World Resources Institute Research Fund .
<br /> vate sources, mitigation and bonds . William Forbes
<br /> g ($ 25, 800 / 822- 0504; free, www . wri . org) fea-
<br /> Sharon Clark Gaskill
<br /> tured case studies in the Saginaw Bay area in Peggy Johnson
<br /> The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Michigan and the Rock River watershed in Sara & Ned Meekins
<br /> ( www . ddcf. org) has announced $2 . 6 million Wisconsin, where pilot trading programs are Mr. & Mrs . J . C . Sanchez
<br /> in grants to expand its conservation fellow- being pursued, as well as the Minnesota Mrs . Sandra Sparks
<br /> Mrs . Jules Tileston
<br /> M&
<br /> ship program to six universities . The fellow- River Valley, where some trading has oc- Mr .Mr . & Audubon society
<br /> ships , created in 1997 at the University of curred . WRI also launched a Web site
<br /> Michigan, Duke University and Yale, will be (www . nutrientnet . org) to demonstrate how More than 320 donors
<br /> offered next year at Cornell, the University nutrient trading could work , have given $ 15,425 to
<br /> of Montana and University of Wisconsin. the COMMON GROUND
<br /> Research Fund this year .
<br /> Fellows , who pursue master ' s degrees in en- John Wayne meets sprawl : Many Americans If you have not made
<br /> vironmental studies, receive $32, 000 for tu- still hold a mythic view of the West as an end- your gift, please don' t
<br /> ition and an internship with a conservation less frontier with wide open vistas . In fact, delay . This is your last
<br /> group . Up to $ 15 , 000 in student loans are re - Western cities are among the fastest growing chance for 2000 .
<br /> paid if fellows pursue conservation careers , in the U . S . as suburbs and ranchettes spread Send your check
<br /> largely unchecked throughout the region . c / o The Conservation
<br /> Almost 70, 000 acres in California were de- -Seen recently on public television, " Subdi Fund, 1800 N . Kent St. ,
<br /> Suite 1120, Arlington, VA
<br /> veloped between 1996 and . 1998, up 25 % vide and Conquer : A Modern Western, " nar- 22209-2156 *
<br /> from the previous 2 -year period . Of the total, rated by Dennis Weaver, compares the vision
<br /> more than 43 , 000 acres we e farmland , with the reality. Civic groups and local gov-
<br /> mostly in Southern California and the Cen- ernment can buy the video, winner of the
<br /> tral Valley, according to " Farmland Conver- " Best Environmental Film" at the Telluride
<br /> . sion Report, 1996-98 " ( free, www . consrv . ca . Mountain Film Festival, for $59 (800 / 543-
<br /> gov; $ 8, 916 / 324-0859 ) , a biennial report by 3764, www . subdividefilm . com) . Individuals
<br /> the state Department of Conservation . Con- pay $29 . 95 for home-use only .
<br /> versions have continued to accelerate since
<br /> the state emerged from a recession in the Natural history and the space race . Nearly
<br /> early 1990s, increasing pressure on some of 9 . 5 million people visited the National Mu-
<br /> the most productive farmland in the U . S . seum of Natural History in Washington,
<br /> California, which produces more than half D . C . , in the last year, making it the most vis-
<br /> the nation' s fruits and vegetables and leads ited museum in the world . The museum
<br /> all states in dairy production, tallies annual edged out the National Air and Space Mu-
<br /> farm receipts of $30 billion . The state has seum, a perennial favorite among tourists in
<br /> two programs to preserve farmland . The the nation ' s capital . Bob Fri, director of the
<br /> Williamson Act, established in 1965 , protects natural history museum, said visitation
<br /> 16 million acres through tax breaks to land - jumped by nearly a third over 1999 thanks
<br /> owners . The Farmland Conservancy Pro- to a renovated geology hall, an IMAX the -
<br /> gram, begun in 1996, currently has $ 6 . 5 mil- ater, an African history and culture hall, a
<br /> lion available for grants to buy easements , new entrance hall and restaurant .
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