Nature Conservancy in Virginia water conflict

A Nature Concervancy attorney is accused of conflict of interest while working for on the opposite side of a battle over water. A Charlottsville Virginia public official "points out that besides serving on the Airport Commission, Edwards is an attorney who works for the Nature Conservancy, the organization most fervently pressing the pipeline/reservoir plan".

Criticism of The Nature Conservancy continues in The Hook newspaper:
"Founded in 1951, the Conservancy shot to fame during the 1970s for its philanthropic approach to saving the environment. Rejecting traditional eco-approaches of bully pulpit (Sierra Club) or colorful demonstration (Greenpeace), the multi-billion-dollar-endowed Conservancy focused instead on simply paying for eco-salvation by purchasing easements on threatened properties and sometimes buying land outright.

But, as revealed by a series of investigative articles in the Washington Post five years ago, that free-market approach veered toward free-wheeling, particularly when the Conservancy made below-market land sales to donors and developers. Today, a chastened Conservancy bills itself as a "science-based" organization.

Such scientific interest is evident locally in the Conservancy's role as architect of the controversial $143 million water plan, which public records show it hopes to use as a national model".

Cashing in on global warming

Cattle Network takes a light-hearted approach to criticizing The Nature Conservancy, poking fun at the way the orgnization is cashing in on environmental concerns about global warming.

"Bait and Switch"

Another community falls victim to The Nature Conservancy's real estate development scams in whay one resident calls "bail and switch" in this letter to the editor at http://www.chicoer.com/opinion/ci_8666511.

Writing about Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park plans, author Clint Maderos sums it up nicley: "The campground will take out prime agricultural land in Chico (food, people!) and take out more of our county tax base while adding costs. The concerns of neighboring property owners are not being properly addressed. My property rights, property values, and quality of life will be reduced without compensation by this state incursion, all made possible by the hefty "benevolence" of the Nature Conservancy."

Welcome to the club Clint.

The Nature Conservancy is No Charity

Green-machine blog wrote today “Some groups are far more efficient than others. The Nature Conservancy, for example, spends just 10 percent of donor contributions on fund raising, while the Sierra Club spends 42 percent, according to the American Institute of Philanthropy.Pope, the Sierra Club director, said it's not a fair comparison. The reason? Donations to the Conservancy and most other environmental groups are tax-deductible -- an important incentive for charitable giving. Contributions to the Sierra Club are not, because it is a political organization, too. "We're not all charities in the same sense," Pope said. "Our average contribution is much, much smaller."”

Gee, do you think so?

Has anybody noticed that the almost $1 billion per year in revenues from land deals makes public donations a tiny and almost irrelevant part of The Nature Conservancy’s financial picture? Apparently Pope was being politically sensitive in his comments but his lack of tenacity does not help people understand the glaring distinction here. TNC is a non-profit, not a charity. One glance at TNC’s financial statement tells you this is an ordinary non-profit organization. TNC is the world’s largest land broker and one of the wealthiest organizations (including all for-profit comapnies) in the world. TNC receives hundreds of millions each year from governments worldwide. Most of its public donations of land are tax-driven as part of wealthy land owners' estate planning, not from the pure goodness of the donor. The Nature Conservancy is not a charity by any stretch of imagination.

Another distinction that should be made is the purpose of the fundraing. Most non-profit organizations raise money in order to financially survive and continue their operations. Not The Nature Conservancy. TNC raises money through highly publicized community activities because it is good PR and especially effective at diverting public attention away from its more significant and controversial financial operations. Fundraising, it turns out, is a great way to create spin. Keep the community fundraising event on the ront page and bury the corruption investigations in the back pages.

The Nature Conservancy’s management has been compared to the world’s most ruthless for-profit corporations yet, these actions are well hidden behind the parade of public fundraising by the do-gooders across America.

Nature Conservancy Sells land in NY

Television channel 13 (CHAM) in Albany NY reported on 3/19/08 that The Nature Conservancy has sold more than 15,000 acres of rural land in New York State to private owners this month for $1.2 million. No information was available on the profit made by The Nature Conservancy on the land deal nor whether taxpayer funds had been previously been used to acquire the property. The Nature Conservancy is under fire worldwide for selling land that had been donated or purchased with taxpayer funds to private and commercial entities at substantial profits. Worldwide revenues from land deals topped $1.3 billion in 2007 making The Nature Conservancy the world’s largest real estate broker.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker Scandal

A well-orchestrated scam by The Nature Conservancy was documented by Fox News in an article titles “Woodpecker Racket?” after it was discovered that the organization made over $10 million windfall on recovery efforts for the extinct Ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas. The article says that The Nature Conservancy almost got away with the scheme in 2004-2006 until “Florida Gulf Coast University ornithologist Jerome A. Jackson criticized the evidence put forth to support the conclusion that the Woodpecker wasn’t extinct after all — including a four-second video of an alleged sighting which garnered widespread media attention; several other anecdotal sightings; and acoustic signals purported to be vocalization and raps from the Woodpecker” in early 2006. Still, the Nature Conservancy reaped $10.2 million in federal taxpayer funds for the conservation project that were originally intended for a more meaningful purpose.

The event led at least one blogger to conclude “The Nature Conservancy is a Fraud”.

Certainly The Nature Conservancy has become an expert in converting our knee-jerk responses to preserve the environment into wealth for its own coffers. The Nature Conservancy collected over $1.3 billion in revenue in 2007 and spent only about ¼ of this on environmental programs. Until the public realizes the long pattern of corruption, scandal and social manipulation ingrained within The Nature Conservancy’s corporate management, we will continue to be duped by the organization’s “do good” outward appearance.

copycat uses The Nature Conservancy strategies to bilk taxpayers

Other so-called environmentlist are catching on to the financial tactics used by The Nature Conservancy to rake in some profits for themselves. Not surprisingly, The Nature Conservancy criticixes other who who the same land brad and development rechnigues that they pioneered wordwide into a multi-billion dollar fortune.

The Baltime Sun reports about a land deal completed a few years ago "Two years ago, the Horseys partnered with David Sutherland and his land-preservation company, the U.S. Land Alliance, to buy a property known as the Kudner farm in Grasonville for $20 million. Last year, U.S. Land Alliance sold a 271-acre piece of the farm to the state and Queen Anne's County for $5 million. The deal generated controversy because the price was higher than two state appraisals and because Sutherland, who used to work for a nonprofit land-conservation group, had served on Gov. Martin O-Malley's transition team. "

This deal has it all - overlapping management, insider deals, overinflated sales at taxpayer expense - all trademarks of The Nature Conservancy. But God forbid anyone else try the same - simply blast them on the destructive effects on the environment.