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Land Legacy“Common-sense conservation" is the guiding principle of Land Legacy, a nonprofit land conservation organization headquartered in Tulsa. Formerly the Trust for Public Land’s state office, the organization was established in December of 2002 in partnership with the Kerr Center and serves the south-central United States. Kerr Center president Jim Horne serves on its governing board of directors. Land Legacy works to preserve natural resources that enhance the quality of life in both urban and rural communities. Its urban work includes parks, trails, and greenbelts. In rural communities, it preserves working agricultural land and other natural resources. In 2001, Oklahoma lost over 30,000 acres of productive agricultural
lands. Land Legacy works with farmers and ranchers to preserve open space
but allow continued private ownership and agricultural production. Robert Gregory is the executive director of Land Legacy. As director of the organization when it was TPL, he oversaw the protection of the Wyckoff Ranch in Osage County. In the first use of the 1999 Oklahoma Uniform Conservation Easement Act, the Wyckoffs established a conservation easement on 760 acres. A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement that restricts residential or commercial development of properties, but keeps land in private ownership. The easement protects the rolling hills of the ranch from ever being subdivided, turned into a housing division or cut up into ranchettes. The Wyckoff ranch is a working ranch, Gregory says, and it will stay that way. Gregory and staff can also claim the first grant made in Oklahoma under the USDA’s Farmland Protection Program. The $25,000 award helped them acquire a conservation easement over a 100-acre property in northern Norman threatened with conversion to non-agricultural use. The organization’s conservation initiatives also include watershed protection and protection of wild and scenic places. Watershed protection includes preserving open space on aquifer-recharge lands and in riparian areas. Land Legacy recently helped protect wooded land along Spavinaw Creek in northeastern Oklahoma. Contact Information
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