| Nature Conservancy taps wealth
of Internet to buy hawk habitat
(Note: How much would Burmeister-Brown - and other mega-donors - have given to TNC if the Pac-Man of land acquisition were not tax exempt? If there were not a tax write-off, how many donations of land and money would TNC still receive?) October 13, 2000 The Associated Press Enterprise, Oregon (AP) - Helped by $5 million from the Internet community, The Nature Conservancy has bought a large chunk of a prairie ecosystem that once stretched across the Northwest. The conservancy used $11.7 million to buy the 27,000-acre Camp Creek Ranch, which represents 20 percent of the Zumwalt prairie. The bunchgrass prairie covers 146,000 acres overall -- one third the size of Rhode Island -- and is home to one of the nation's densest concentrations of nesting birds of prey. The Nature Conservancy has known about the Zumwalt for 20 years, but has not been able to raise the money to buy its pieces. The Internet age has changed all that. Animal world The organization has been recruiting board members from the high-tech industry. When the Camp Creek Ranch came up for sale, they turned to Mike Burmeister-Brown, a Yahoo! engineer and president of Second Nature Software, which donates profits to the conservancy. He made a pitch to Glen Boyd and Eli Shapira, founders of WebTrends, and the $5 million was secured. "Part of philanthropy is not just the ability to give, but being able to make a connection and feeling like you can make a difference," said Boyd, whose Portland company makes software to track online traffic. "We felt we could move quickly and make sure we saved it so it didn't get bought for ranching or hunting or some other private use." The nature of stock options makes it attractive for Internet millionaires to contribute, Burmeister-Brown said. Turning their stock into cash means losses to capital gains taxes, but by making a charitable contribution, they can give the whole amount. "A lot of these people, yeah, they're worth a lot of money on paper," Burmeister-Brown said. "But they've had it about a year and a half. It's foreign to them. Suddenly there's a sense of responsibility and power, with the emphasis on the responsibility." The Zumwalt is what's left of an ecosystem that once stretched across the northern tier of the Oregon desert, through Idaho and eastern Washington and north into Montana and Canada. The remnants are mostly scraps between irrigated farmlands and along roads. The diversity of the prairie has been replaced by the monoculture of a pasture, with fewer insects, small mammals and other species. Heavy grazing has allowed cheatgrass to move in, reducing the nutritional value for elk and deer as well as cattle. Young aspen trees have been eaten to the ground, threatening nesting habitat for hawks. The crust of lichens and mosses that hold moisture in the soil is broken. "As we enter a new century, there are not many chances left to preserve unbroken ecosystems," said Russ Hoeflich, the conservancy's Oregon director. "The value of this wilderness area to present and future generations is beyond measure." |