Nature Conservancy gets grant to help purchase Cagney Ranch

Sierra Times ^ | October 5, 2002 | Brian E. Clark

[TonyWojo]

RAMONA – The Nature Conservancy has received a $660,000 federal grant to use as a down payment toward the purchase of the 420-acre Cagney Ranch in the grasslands belt south of the Ramona airport.

The money, which came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will be matched with a $165,000 grant from the state, according to Ann Van Leer of the Nature Conservancy.

She said the group hopes to raise the rest of the nearly $2 million needed to purchase the ranch – which is dotted with vernal pools and pockets of undisturbed native grasses – from private donors and through other grants.

Janet Gilbert, spokeswoman for a group called Ramona Grasslands, said purchase of the Cagney ranch will be a major achievement. The property was owned by William J. Cagney, the brother of movie star James Cagney..

Don Adkison, an attorney for the Cagney family, said the Cagney brothers often visited the property, which was used to raise cattle. He said the ranch has value not only for its habitat, plants and wildlife, but because of American Indian artifacts found on it.

"Though Jim (James Cagney) had no real ownership with it, he appreciated it," Adkison said. "He also wrote poetry about nature and was a painter. I think everyone connected with the family is pleased that this land will be protected."

In addition to Gilbert's organization, Van Leer said the Wildlife Research Institute and the Vernal Pool Association also were instrumental in obtaining the grants.

Gilbert said the ranch is a key component of the proposed preserve because it is in the heart of the grasslands.

"I am confident that we will be able to complete this purchase and protect creatures such as the federally endangered San Diego fairy shrimp, arroyo toad, Stephen's kangaroo rat and the threatened California gnatcatcher," she said.

She noted that the area south of the airport is also home to wintering raptors and serves as a stopover for migratory waterfall and songbirds. She said her group's ultimate goal is to purchase about 5,000 acres and bordering terrain and join it with the San Dieguito River Park and Multiple Species Conservation Program lands to the south.

Sharon Quisenberry, who is representing the sellers, said she could not say when the option to purchase the land obtained by the Nature Conservancy will expire. Nor would she say what the exact price of the deal will be.

"But I can reiterate that the Cagney Trust is very happy that this is going to happen," said Quisenberry, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Associates in Ramona. "They think this is a positive step for Ramona and for their family's legacy."

[TonyWojo]

The Daily Land Grab

Coming soon to your neighborhood.

[TonyWojo]

The Federally funded land grab of the day ping

[Texas_Jarhead]

I wanna buy a 400 acre ranch! How do I get some of them federal and state grants?

[Texas_Jarhead]

Also, I could be mistaken but I think that the Nature Conservancy is the richest organization of its type with billions in assets.

[Ben Hecks]

Interesting that our money is used to buy land from which we will be excluded. You can't make this up, folks.

[Wphile]

The Nature Conservancy has received a $660,000 federal grant...

Unfrickinbelieveable.

[isthisnickcool]

The Federal Gov't should not be giving this nonprofit a penny!!!!

The Nature Conservancy Has 3+ Billion Dollars In Assets!

[Physicist]

"Though Jim (James Cagney) had no real ownership with it, he appreciated it," Adkison said. "He also wrote poetry about nature

The Feds will someday
Get this land, but me? Never!
Top of the world, Ma!

They'll sell this joint to
The Nature Conservancy
For you dirty rats.

[Physicist]

Two million smackers?
I got more den dat stashed dere!
Come get it, coppers!

[AAABEST]

The Nature Conservancy has received a $660,000 federal grant to use as a down payment toward the purchase of the 420-acre Cagney Ranch in the grasslands belt south of the Ramona airport.

The money, which came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will be matched with a $165,000 grant from the state, according to Ann Van Leer of the Nature Conservancy.

You'll still get people going around claiming that the robber-baron Conservancy is a "private organizaion" just exercising the right to buy property. Meanwhile we give them millions of our own tax money.

[AAABEST]

File #1010023
Organization: The Nature Conservancy
Source: American Policy Center
Activity Summary: EXTREME

LAND GRABBING SECRETS OF THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

TNC American Policy Center Article
Wednesday, August 04, 1999

Never heard of The Nature Conservancy? Well, that's probably no accident. It keeps a low profile by design. When you run scams like it does, you don't want to be notorious.

So let's lift the rock off these slugs and shine a very bright spotlight on a few of their most outrageous games.

The Nature Conservancy is the richest, most powerful environmental colossus in the world. It claims 680,000 individual members and 405 corporate members operating out of eight regional offices and fifty chapter offices across the nation. The Nature Conservancy has assets of almost $1 Billion and has an annual operating budget of over $300 million and a staff of 1150 people.

THE SCAM - real estate. THE HOOK - "conservation through private action." According to the party line, The Nature Conservancy simply buys land with private money and sets up nature reserves, thereby helping the environment without infringing on anybody. What a wonderful, charitable idea. Ah, if only it were true.

THE VICTIMS - unsuspecting property owners (many times elderly). THE METHODS - hide behind phony corporations; serve as a shill for government agencies; work behind the scenes with more visible environmental groups to intimidate property owners into selling. THE GOAL - money and power.

The Nature Conservancy frequently uses phony front companies to get land from owners who wouldn't knowingly sell to an environmentalist group.

It used this tactic to purchase most of the islands off the coast of Virginia, containing 40,000 acres and sixty miles of coastline. In doing so The Nature Conservancy was able to stop all private development and control the use of the land, damaging the tax base, killing thousands of jobs, and severely curbing the locals from hunting, fishing, camping and joy riding on the islands.

But don't think the purpose was to preserve these beautiful, pristine islands for nature. The Nature Conservancy did bar others from developing the land - but not itself. Far from it. At a huge profit, the Conservancy developed up-scale homes for the rich.

But how is that bad? If they do it with private money what's wrong with it? Isn't that just free enterprise?

The problem is The Nature Conservancy is a non-profit organization with tax exempt status and they maintain that status because of their tightly protected image as benevolent conservationists. Moreover, property owners on the islands wanted to invest in development and thought they were selling their land to developers. They were aware of and frightened by the Nature Conservancy and would never have sold to the group. That's why the Conservancy hid behind a phony land company, grabbed power, foiled the development and made a huge profit on tax-exempt money. Today much of the coast of Virginia is off-limits to tourists and other development.

Other times, The Nature Conservancy acts as a shill to a government agency to acquire land cheaply and sell it to the government at a huge profit. Again, conservation is not the goal.

One of its favorite scams goes something like this. Your grandmother owns land close to a historic site or a wilderness area. The government wants the land to expand a park but grandmother won't sell.

One day a representative of the Nature Conservancy shows up, well dressed, smiling, but concerned. He tells your grandmother that he's just learned that the government intends to take her land after she passes away. She won't be able to sell it or give it to her children. However, he can offer a solution.

If Grandmother will sell her land to The Nature Conservancy he can assure her that the land will stay in private hands and not be taken by the government.

Well, a relieved grandmother is much happier and she agrees to sell. However, says the nice man from The Nature Conservancy, because the government has threatened to take the land, its value is now only about half its reported market value. That's all he'll be able to pay her. Well, thinks grandmother, half is better than nothing, so she sells.

The next day our friend from The Nature Conservancy makes a call to the Department of the Interior informing them that their plan has worked. The whole thing had been pre-arranged between them before anyone ever knocked on Grandmother's door. As arranged, The Nature Conservancy then sells the land to the Interior Department FOR FULL MARKET VALUE PLUS OVERHEAD, FINANCING AND HANDLING CHARGES.

Hundreds of complaints have been recorded concerning the practices of the Conservancy's land grabbing operation. One family in Indiana had to sue to get back their father's land that was signed over to The Nature Conservancy when he was very old and mentally incompetent to handle his affairs. Agents of the Conservancy had helped him in changing documents that left his entire estate to The Nature Conservancy. The family won back their property but only after being forced to spend a fortune in legal fees.

Unfortunately space allows only a minor look at the mammoth operation of The Nature Conservancy. Its power, wealth and control is almost beyond comprehension. Yet it is able to maintain an image of idealism and concern for the environment.

The truth is The Nature Conservancy is really little more than a massive, ruthless real estate machine using its tax exempt status and ties to the government to create wealth for itself.

So If ever you receive a knock on the door from a smiling representative of The Nature Conservancy, slam it in his face and rush to your neighbors to sound the alarm, or the saying "there goes the neighborhood" could take on a completely different meaning. $


Just a sample:

http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/special_issues/nature_conservancy_land_purchases.htm

[farmfriend]

They are the ones that just gave Canada $1,000,000 purchase land for habitat. There was a thread here on FR.

My question is:

1. IF they have money to give away, why are they taking our tax dollars?

2. Doesn't this constitute a federal land purchase without state approval?

[farmfriend]

The Nature Conservancy Provides one Million for Purchase and Protection Of Tallgrass Prairie

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[farmfriend]

The money, which came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will be matched with a $165,000 grant from the state, according to Ann Van Leer of the Nature Conservancy.

Well, I guess that answers my second question.

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[farmfriend]

Do you have any input on this?

[philetus]

1. IF they have money to give away, why are they taking our tax dollars?

Because they can.

2. Doesn't this constitute a federal land purchase without state approval?

What if it does?
do you think the state would interfere?
It only hurts little people so whom is going to care?
Ever seen them try to pull crap like this on someone like Gates, or Turner?

[TonyWojo]

Well since you ask, People need to wake up.

There articles like this one in the paper several times a week. If it is not an NGO then it is a State or Federal Enviro nut Agency.

Now the words Wildlands Project starts to go above the heads of an average reader, maybe just a bit to futuristic sounding for their comprehension levels. Not in my life time or for whatever other reason there seems to be very little concern over Turtle Island. GOD help future generations.

Now if you bring up Agenda 21 or sustainable environment, Biosphere, then you are looked upon as an extreme wacko, try and have a conversation with someone and bring up the UN, UNESCO, Kyoto protocal, and they either run or want you admitted in a psycho ward.

I sometimes wonder if my children will ever have the opportunity to live, what soon will be the fabled American Dream, of property ownership.

[anymouse]

...San Diego fairy shrimp, arroyo toad, Stephen's kangaroo rat and the threatened California gnatcatcher...?!!

Most everywhere else we call them vermine. What the heck is our tax dollars doing confescating private property to protect vermine?