Frontpage News
Land Preserved Forever
Lezlee Whiting 30.Oct.07
Roosevelt's Allan Smith stands in front of the property that has been in his family for three generation. The land near the Tabiona turnoff was recently deeded to two government agencies in the form of a perpetual conservation easement. Smith's conservation practices have earned him numerous awards and recognition.
ALLAN SMITH FAMILY LEAVES LEGACY
The land near the Tabiona turnoff will never be developed commercially.
The grandchildren of a Duchesne County sheep rancher have created a legacy that will forever protect the land he began acquiring in the early 1900s.
Through the creation of two conservation easements, 5,713-acres located 18 miles north of Duchesne just off of U.S. 40 near the junction with state Highway 208 – the Tabiona turnoff – will remain a migration corridor for wintering big game, and as an important habitat for both wildlife and rangeland for livestock.
Roosevelt resident Allan Smith recently finalized agreements with federal and state agencies and four different funding entities to place about half of the land his family owns in west Duchesne County in a perpetual conservation easement.
The easements prohibit development of the property forever, while preserving Smith’s private property rights and his working cattle ranch. They are owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The two agencies will administer their easements as one. (See sidebar with this article.)
Smith's grandfather, Moroni, and his two brothers homesteaded much of the land that Allan Smith and his family still own in the Uintah Basin. The Smith brothers also bought thousands of acres later on when less-hearty folks gave up on their dry, barren homesteads in Duchesne, Uintah and Wasatch counties.
“Everything the DWR owns out here was either his or his two brothers…everything from the Duchesne River to where our ground is,” said Smith.
Moroni Smith passed his property to his son Emory in the late 1920s. Emory Smith ran between 5,000 and 7,500 sheep in Utah, utilizing 25,000 acres in Wasatch County, 12,000 acres in Duchesne County and 10,000 acres in Uintah County.
Emory Smith in turn handed his inheritance off to Allan and his three siblings in the 1960s. Together they formed the Smith Family Partnership and later Deep Creek Investments.
Today the DWR owns the adjacent 42,000 acres that are contiguous with the easement property. The State Institutional Trust Lands Administration owns an additional 28,000 acres, known as the “Tabby Mountain Block” – that is adjacent to the north of the DWR property.
The perpetual conservation easement will ensure that the Smith property will continue to serve as a critical wintering area for hundreds of deer and elk. The fact that it will never be developed commercially also means it will remain an important migratory corridor for big game, and prime fall and spring grazing range for domestic livestock, conceivably forever.
The conservation easement will assist with the urgent need to maintain endangered sage grouse habitat, said Randall Thacker, DWR northeastern region wildlife biologist.
“Historically, sage grouse are not even a tenth of what they used to be,” said Thacker. “They are on the state ‘sensitive species’ list. They are one we really want to watch so they don’t become a threatened or endangered species. We have had radio-collared birds we have documented who come to Allan’s property to spend the winter…the open space is really important.”
Smith said he was taught throughout his life about the importance of preserving the land for future generations.
“For my father and grandfather both...being environmentally correct was their main thing. They were very adamant about taking care of the land," said Smith. "Leave the land better than you received it, that’s probably the general philosophy – leave it better than you received it."
Since 1986 over $240,000 has been spent on improvements to the Smith family’s land. Allan Smith contributed $180,000 out of his own pocket to enhance the rangeland and wildlife habitat. The remainder came through government funding earmarked for seeding, soil and watershed improvements, brush reduction and related projects. A portion of the enhancement costs have gone to regenerate sage grouse habitat.
The improvements have paid off.
The range went from providing forage for 90 cows four months of the year, to providing forage for some 800 cows four months each year, plus providing a wintering habitat for some 5,000 deer and 1,200 elk.
Smith keeps copious records of his scientifically-based agricultural enhancements. His work has been written about in industry periodicals, and he is well-known in the agricultural community as one of the leading rangeland managers in the nation.
“He has a vision; his family has a lot of time and effort invested in that land for 100 years. That’s the big picture we are looking at,” said Brett Prevedel, NRCS district conservationist. “Allan and his family left a legacy of a lifetime of hard work for future generations.”
Seven years ago Smith offered 10,000 acres for conservation easements to the federal government but continual bureaucratic red tape put a crimp in that proposal. At one time, an easement agreement of any size appeared to be off the table.
In 2005, when it looked like bureaucracy would stall progress yet again, Smith said his siblings and children, weary of the years of delays, began to consider selling their property to the highest bidder.
“The sub-dividers offered much more – we had signed agreements in hand,” said Smith. “A year ago in December the sub-dividers came out of the woodwork and they offered my siblings three times more money than what the easements would do, that’s when my family was saying ‘Hey, what’s it going to be?'”
Stephen Hansen, DWR land and water assets coordinator, has nothing but praise and appreciation for the forbearance shown by Smith and his family members.
“The parties are tremendously grateful to the Smith family for their patience in this process,” said Hansen.
Emory Smith (left) and his father Moroni Smith are pictured on their family land. Moroni Smith and his brothers moved to the Uintah Basin when the territory was opened for homesteading the early 1900s. The Smith family owned thousands of sheep and grazed them on the thousands of acres which' they owned in Uintah, Duchesne and Wasatch counties. They were always conscious about the need to be good stewards of the land, said Allan Smith, grandson of Moroni Smith.The Smith family still owns 6,000 adjoining acres which are not part of the easement. Smith said they plan to develop in the future, should a culinary water system become available on the county's west side.
What is a conservation easement?
Private property holders who deed their land to a government agency through a “conservation easement” to a trust land organization relinquish their development rights but continue to own their property.
The Allan Smith family’s 5,713 acre conservation easement, just north of U.S. 40 and east of the junction with state Highway 208 near the Tabiona turnoff, is held by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
The NRCS purchased a conservation easement on 4,800 acres of the Smith property through funding made available by the Grassland Reserve Program. The voluntary federal program targets grazing lands that have the greatest threat of conversion to commercial or residential property, said NRSC District Conservationist Brett Prevedel.
“It typically buys the development rights so it can still be owned and operated by the original owner but the easement prohibits development,” he said.
The DWR also holds a conservation easement which they purchased on 913 acres of Smith’s property adjoining the NRCS easement. The DWR’s purchase was financed through funding assembled by the division as well as the Utah Quality Growth Commission LeRay McAllister Critical Conservation Fund, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the Mule Deer Foundation.
The entire 5,713 acres will be managed as one easement, said Prevedel.
“There is one grazing plan that takes into account the health of the rangeland and the bio-diversity, the plant and animal resources, the wildlife and the livestock,” he said.
The Smiths will still be able to ranch on the land, but it will be monitored by the government agencies for compliance with the easement. In the event the family sells the property in the future, the conservation easement remains in place with the DWR and NRCS as the monitors.
“Let’s say the Smiths sell it to someone 10 years down the road and that person tries to throw up a subdivision on the back 40 – as holders of the public trust we would have to go in and we would work to resolve the situation,” said Stephen Hansen, DWR land and water assets coordinator. “NRCS and DWR have a legal right to enforce the promises made in the conservation easement.”
An appraisal of the property to assess its value with and without development, determines what the federal government will pay the landowner, said Prevedel. The Smith family received about one-third of the value of the land had it been sold to real estate developers. The easement does make the property eligible for a tax break.
“He really gave up a lot of opportunity financially to protect what his family has been working on for 100 years for future generations,” said Prevedel.
The federal Grassland Reserve Program perpetual easement, which the Smiths agreed to, is a first for Utah.
“The thing that was fairly unique about the Smith donation was the number of organizations that came together and pitched in,” said the DWR's Hansen. “There was a lot of coordination among the parties.”
There are a number of state-owned conservation easements held by various groups in Utah. The DWR holds 43 conservation easements throughout the state, including three in their northeastern region which includes the Uinta Basin.
