LVEA in Action Fall 2006

____________________________________________________________________________________

Deal preserves old northern Nevada ranch

ASSOCIATED PRESS, October 9, 2006

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. (AP) - Eight years after the original proposal to preserve the old Hussman Ranch, the check has cleared and the first conservation easement under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act is in place.

The easement protects 300 acres of irrigated pasture land in northern Nevada's Carson Valley.

David and Kathi Hussman had been working with the American Land Conservancy since 1998 to preserve the ranch. The approval of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Act allowed them to begin going forward with the deal in 2001.

Hussman said the family's property rights were like a bundle of sticks and that the easement, which netted them an undisclosed sum, takes away just one of the sticks.

"The only right we're giving up is the right to develop," Hussman said of the working ranch. "We're not allowing public access."

The Hussman family has operated the ranch for 134 years. William Hussman came to Carson Valley from Germany in 1869 and purchased the ranch in 1872. He was killed while felling a tree in 1873, and his widow, Johanna Heitman, then married his brother, Fred.

About 260 acres of the development rights for the 563-acre ranch have been transferred off the property. Under the program, the conservation easement is administered by the Bureau of Land Management, though the Hussman's retain ownership of the property and control of the ranch.

"This is a milestone agreement and model of cooperative conservation for Nevada and the nation," Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne said. "Private landowners are working hand-in-hand with the federal government and American Land Conservancy to protect wildlife habitat and the Carson River, while also preserving part of the West's ranching heritage."

Four other ranches are waiting for the Bureau of Land Management to wrap up conservation easements, including the Flying J, Stodieck Brothers, Scossa Brothers and Churia Holstein Limited Partnership.

Federal officials say money for the easements, which comes from the sale of federal land in the Las Vegas area, is available.

"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men."

-Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address