Family donates conservation easement near Iowa River

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This article was written and posted on INHF's website in January 2003. 

A Hardin County family has donated a conservation easement valued at about $335,000 to help protect the Iowa River greenbelt.

On Dec. 27, Bob and Joell De Neui of rural Ackley donated the conservation easement on 98 acres of their 700-acre farm to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF). In 1996 the de Neuis gave INHF an easement valued at nearly $240,000 on another 200 acres of their land. INHF is a nonprofit conservation group that protects Iowa's natural land, water and wildlife.

"Society used to think we had to exploit everything to improve our quality of life, but now we realize that too much exploitation actually lowers our quality of life," notes Bob de Neui, who grew up on a farm near Steamboat Rock. "Balance is the key."

The de Neui farm is located at a key site on the Iowa River, nestled between the Hardin County Conservation Board Headquarters and Mann Wilderness. The farm features hilltop crop fields, steeply wooded ravines, streams and nearly a mile of Iowa River frontage. The Iowa River Greenbelt Resource Trust (IRGRT) identified this area, which is known as the "heart of the greenbelt" as a high priority for natural resource protection. The de Neuis are IRGRT members.

The de Neuis purchased the property, which they call ForestWilde, in 1974. Over the years, they have taken many steps to protect and enhance their land's conservation values: planting wildflowers and prairie grasses, enrolling 100 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program and planting more than 100,000 trees and shrubs. Bob originally planned to harvest walnut and other hardwood trees on the farm but changed his views over time.

"I'm not against people cutting trees," de Neui notes. "We need selective logging-for houses, pianos, baseball bats-all kinds of things. But I also think some places need to be left wild. I want these woods to be here for my kids and beyond."

"The de Neuis are models for good conservation," says Lisa Hein, INHF's Program and Planning Director. "They understand 'the big picture' and that land needs to provide clean water and air and wildlife habitat and a place for wilderness in balance with everything else it could produce. They and other members of IRGRT realize that protecting their area is not just the state or county's responsibility but everyone's responsibility."

A conservation easement is a legal tool that allows landowners to "formalize" their land use decisions for themselves and future generations. Easement donors voluntarily restrict certain land uses, usually those they weren't exercising and don't want exercised.

"For example, the de Neuis restricted all timber harvesting, mining, commercial or industrial development on their land, forever," noted Hein. "They preserved the rights of private ownership and access, hunting, farming on the existing fields, adding one house within a designated building envelope, and restoration of the land with native plantings."

The value of a conservation easement is the difference between the fair market before and after the easement and is determined by an independent appraiser. A conservation easement may reduce the land's market value. However, the value of a donated easement can be considered a charitable gift on state and federal income taxes.

The easement holder, in this case INHF, agrees to monitor and enforce those restrictions in perpetuity. To cover those costs, the de Neuis and IRGRT also donated several thousand dollars to INHF's Easement Stewardship Fund.

INHF has helped protect many other sites along the Iowa River, including Sand Springs Wildlife Area, Sandstone Palisades, Wildcat Cave Access, and--late in 2002--a 68-acre addition to Pine Lake State Park.

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, INHF Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.
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