The ‘Fatal Conceit’ of the Land-Trust Movement

To the Editor:

At the conclusion of Stephen G. Greene’s “Preserving Open Space for the Ages” (July 29), a leader in the New England land-trust movement is quoted as saying: “Our work has to change the way people live their lives, or there’s no point in us doing it.”

How fitting that in the year marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek, the gentleman from New England should provide such a superb example of the “fatal conceit” that Mr. von Hayek warned against. As this century draws to a close, we would do well to pause and remember how much suffering was brought about over the past hundred years by those who took it upon themselves to “change the way people live their lives.”

Subtle coercion — the fictional Godfather Vito Corleone’s “offer you can’t refuse” — is still coercion. Cash-poor ranchers and farmers will, out of desperation, enter into arrangements with land-trust groups when the alternative is subjecting their children to the nation’s confiscatory estate taxes.

Eliminate the death tax, and owners of large spreads will take a different attitude toward their self-anointed saviors. Many a rural landowner has seen his property value plummet with the creation of a wilderness area, heritage area, or national scenic river — complete with buffer zones — near his land. Soon, a representative from one of the land trusts will show up on his door step with a Godfather-like offer. It’s what is known as the myth of the willing seller.

The whole business is not as benign as some would have you believe.

Bonner R. Cohen
Senior Fellow
Lexington Institute
Arlington, Va.