Mark writes:

>  It is not that I am against land swapping or trading up, it's that I like
to
>  give to the end user and not the broker.  It fails my requirement that the
>  group has ownership because they generally take better care of the land.  I
>  generally don't see government a good owner - not because of any inherent
>  distrust - but because the owners change with elections and the goals may
>  change.

Not that it matters much, I suspect, but you're going to have a really
difficult time finding anyone to give your money to. The only two private
large-scale conservancy organizations that that operate to lock up land that
I know of. They are The Nature Convservancy and Conservation International.
Both act in the same manner -- and neither wishes to become permanent
landlords or land managers. Instead, they turn the land over to private
foundations, research consortia, and state and federal wildlife agencies as
quickly as possible to perform the necessary land management activities.

Wirt Atmar

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