Stewardship

In the summer of 1980, MALT's founding Board of Directors organized the first agricultural land trust in the nation. Because the fledgling organization had no office, no phone number, and no money in the bank, the directors took turns hosting the initial meetings in their own living rooms.

What they did have was a vision of preserving Marin's natural, scenic, and agricultural lands. That vision eventually would be supported by a $1 million grant from the San Francisco Foundation, a $1 million grant from the State Coastal Conservancy, and a $15 million distribution from Proposition 70, a statewide ballot issue. Over the past 20 years those funds and additional contributions by foundations, individuals, and the County of Marin have enabled MALT to purchase agricultural conservation easements on 63 family farms and ranches, a total of more than 40,500 acres permanently preserved from subdivision and non-agricultural development.

Today at MALT we sometimes try to imagine a time in the future when we would hold conservation easements on all of the remaining private agricultural land in Marin County that landowners have chosen to protect in this way. Such an accomplishment would be momentous, and it might seem that our job would then be finished. We could close up shop and go back to occasional living room get-togethers. But the reality is, our work will have barely begun.

Since the first conservation easement was drafted in the United States in the 1880s, land trusts and other easement holders across the nation have had the responsibility of monitoring easement-protected lands, enforcing these easements, and defending them in court if necessary. When MALT acquires an easement, we also take on an obligation to ensure that the land is managed in a way that is consistent with the terms of our agreement, even when protected properties pass to new owners and plans for a property change. In the years since MALT acquired its first easement, our stewardship responsibility has grown substantially and will continue to do so in the future.

The landowners are the stewards of the land while MALT's responsibility is to "steward" the easements that we hold. Although the conservation easements granted to MALT represent an interest in the real property they protect, they do not grant us the right to manage this land. Management, although it must be done in accordance with the provisions of the easement, continues to be the responsibility of the landowners. We think this is the way it should be.

One of the main tenets of our program is that agricultural land and the future of agriculture in Marin County are best protected by continued operation of farms by the families that know this business and have been farming for generations. The day-to-day and year-to-year management of farm and ranch operations will always be carried out by the ranchers and farmers themselves.

Our goal now, as it was in 1980, is to be partners in stewardship with landowners by providing an option that can help farming families keep their land farmland forever.

To read more, see these articles that provide additional details on MALT’s stewardship role once an easement is conveyed to MALT and MALT’s Stewardship Assistance Program.

For more information on our stewardship program, contact Matt Wacker at (415) 663-9721 or mwacker@malt.org.

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