Lindsay Rosa: Good intentions in Menotomy trust plans are not enough

To The Daily Sun,

For some, the Lakes Region is a few summer weeks of family, beaches, and woodlands. For others, it’s home. Either way, we trace our sense of belonging to a special place and assume it will still be there.

That assumption is being tested. More people want to buy or build here, rising land values make some camps worth more sold than run, and landowners are weighing what happens to their property after they’re gone. More are reaching the same conclusion: Time with the land isn’t forever, but decisions about it can be.

Many have given land to community groups believing the land was the gift. But land doesn’t protect itself; the paperwork does. And some are finding out now that those protections were not built for forever. Camp Menotomy, a 95-acre camp on Lake Winnipesaukee with some of the last undeveloped shoreline, is now in litigation over a trustee-proposed sale to a developer. The outcome is unknown, but the lesson isn’t: good intentions in trust arrangements aren’t enough.

There are legal tools to help people make their commitment to the land a forever one. Land trusts use conservation easements, voluntary agreements that permanently limit development while the owner keeps title and use. An accredited land trust monitors, enforces, and defends that agreement long after its authors are gone.

What readers can do:

• Review every deed, lease, and trust with everyone who has an interest in the land
• Use specific language, not open-ended standards
• Separate ownership from enforcement, and name a backup enforcer
• Partner with a well-resourced land trust

No land to give? A planned gift, membership, or volunteer hour helps keep the land we love protected forever.

If people are deciding what happens to a special place here, don’t rely on good intentions alone. Call a local land trust.

Lindsay Rosa

Center Harbor