{"id":804594,"date":"2020-02-25T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=379501"},"modified":"2020-02-25T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T21:30:00","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-fiester-preserve-conservation-easement-is-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/letter-to-the-editor-fiester-preserve-conservation-easement-is-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the editor: Fiester Preserve conservation easement is real"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/LettersWebCard-SDN1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>I was encouraged when I opened the paper and saw the title of the opinion column by Susan Knopf, \u201cCommunity could do better on Fiester Preserve.\u201d And then I read the column and could not be more disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think I have ever seen a more united Summit County community than the opposition to removing the Fiester Preserve conservation easement. When have you seen Democrats, Republicans, environmentalists, real estate brokers, residents and visitors get behind the same issue? Removing the Fiester Preserve conservation easement is a bad idea. Let\u2019s save the discussion for another day on whether the community should support senior housing. Maybe we should or shouldn\u2019t but certainly not on Fiester Preserve.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the writer\u2019s opinion, a conservation easement is an elevated legal concept, not just \u201ca dream\u201d or \u201ca vision.\u201d Conservation easements are real. They are put in place representing the values of the community and to prevent the public and future community leadership from easily changing their minds. Likewise, the standard of care for our county officials making the decision to remove the Fiester Preserve conservation easement should be elevated.<\/p>\n<p>My concern is that nobody understands the unintended consequences of the county\u2019s actions. Friends of the Lower Blue are right to be concerned about the precedent-setting future of conservation easements. Can future leadership at the county overturn their years of hard efforts to preserve the Lower Blue character? What about workforce housing deed restrictions? Can we just wait a few years with new leadership who don\u2019t think those deed restrictions should be enforced?<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s not debate the word \u201cperpetuity.\u201d Let\u2019s revegetate Fiester Preserve back to what it was before the beetle kill devastated the forest. Let\u2019s let the community weigh-in with a ballot question.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/opinion\/letter-to-the-editor-fiester-preserve-conservation-easement-is-real\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was encouraged when I opened the paper and saw the title of the opinion column by Susan Knopf, \u201cCommunity could do better on Fiester Preserve.\u201d And then I read the column and could not be more disappointed. I don\u2019t think I have ever seen a more united Summit County community than the opposition to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-21 17:50:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}