500 Acres and Counting
Fall 2011
By early next year, the BACT’s goal is to have protected almost 500 acres of privately owned open land in Barrington.
Whether your family has lived here for a hundred years or you have recently chosen Barrington as a place to raise your family, it is likely that our region’s blessing of open lands helped inspire your choice.
These open lands are essential to the scenic beauty and environmental health of the Barrington area. Future subdivision and development of these remaining open lands would translate into increased traffic, density, and further degradation of our watersheds.
It is not enough to protect small pockets of lands as nature preserves. The goal of the BACT is to use conservation easements to protect the remaining open lands in Barrington that are privately owned and vulnerable to further subdivision and development. As Steve Barg of Libertyville Prairie Conservancy notes:
“The pendulum cannot swing from environmental degradation to environmental health in a community by protecting a small percentage of land as open space. We have to restore and protect the majority of the land, most of which is privately owned, by using conservation easements and encouraging private land owners to make their land more environmentally friendly.”
To that end, the BACT will continue to work with private land owners to place conservation easements on their land that protect them from encroaching development. While the economy and housing market may be in a slump right now, according to Rand Wentworth, head of the Land Trust Alliance, the Census Bureau says that the U.S. population will grow by 100 million people in the next 40 years. All these people will need places to work and live, which will put enormous pressure on our natural and agricultural lands and resources.
There will also be enormous pressure to subdivide our remaining land. While it is hard to see beyond the current economic downturn, when the economy does rebound many developers will look to Barrington as one of the most desirable housing areas.
We currently have more than a half dozen homeowners working with us to complete conservation easements by year end. Please consider joining them and reaping the significant property, income and estate tax benefits they offer. Most important, join our efforts to protect the beauty of Barrington for future generations by becoming a member today.
Karen Yancey
Executive Director, Barrington Area Conservation Trust