Land Protection Policies and Acquisition Criteria

Policies

I.          POLICIES 
A.    SHLT protects land that has value for conservation, education, or scientific research purposes and that provides significant public benefit.
B.     SHLT concentrates, but does not limit, its land protection efforts on the southern Lake Michigan watershed in Lake, Porter, and LaPorte Counties.
C.     SHLT supports the efforts of other conservation organizations to protect land in the southern Lake Michigan watershed and neighboring areas.
D.    SHLT fulfills its mission of land protection as economically as possible.
E.     SHLT protects land by fulfilling the stewardship responsibilities, such as monitoring, management, and enforcement, that are associated with any given property.
F.      SHLT may accept gifts of land lacking significant conservation, education, or scientific research value, if it is the donor’s intent that the land could be used to generate funds for supporting the mission of the organization. 

Shirley Heinze Land Trust Property Boundaries

Open this in Google Earth or Google Maps to see if your property is adjacent to Shirley Heinze Land Trust lands.
Our properties are outlined in yellow.
shlt_boundaries.kmz
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intro_shirley_heinze_land_trust.kml
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Acquisition Criteria 

 To determine if a property has value for conservation, education or scientific study and if it provides significant public benefit, SHLT will use as guidelines the criteria listed below and the IRS criteria for the “conservation purposes” test at Sec. 170(h)(4)(A) of the IRS Code

A.    Natural Resource Criteria
  • Habitat for plant or animal species classified by the state or federal government as rare, endangered, or threatened.
  • Exemplary or critical habitat for plant or animal species not classified as rare, endangered, or threatened.
  • Land connecting or buffering existing protected areas, especially natural corridors.
  • Scenic outlook or key element within a scenic landscape.
  • Land protecting the quality or quantity of surface or underground waters or providing natural control of flooding.
  • Land providing important educational or research opportunities that also relate to other natural resource criteria. 
  • Land acquired should normally total at least 10 acres unless there is significant strategic value for the acquisition or the land would add to or buffer an existing protected or project area of SHLT or another conservation organization.

B.     Requirements  
  • Map sufficient for SHLT to fulfill its stewardship responsibilities, generally obtained before acquisition of the real estate.
  • Marketable title, confirmed prior to the acquisition of the real estate, except where the financial cost to do so is high and the achieved reduction of risk, as determined by SHLT’s attorney, is low.
  • Freedom from hazardous waste contamination, including, if necessary, a completion of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment and approval by SHLT’s attorney.
  • Permanent, legal access to the property for monitoring, management, and enforcement; can be a specifically deeded right to SHLT or access via an existing legal public access.

C.     Other Favorable Factors    
  • Threat of development
  • Low degree of existing protection
  • Historical or cultural value
  • Land in an area recognized as a "Greenway Opportunity" by NIRPC, a "Resource Protection Area" in Chicago Wilderness' "Green Infrastructure Vision", or as having conservation value in similar local, regional or national conservation planning programs.
  • Availability of funds to cover SHLT’s acquisition and stewardship costs
  • Low potential for problems in future monitoring, management liability, or enforcement
  • Good potential for restoration 
  • Lands accepted under Section I. F. must be suitable for resale, have substantial financial value, and meet the criteria under Section II. B. above.
  • High probability of adding additional land in the future.