James Collins

Hello! I'm a 50-year resident of New Hampshire and property owner in Orange, N.H., with land enrolled in current use. I've come to see the current use provision as one of the state's most valuable and effective tools for allowing land owners to continue holding onto their land without being forced to sell it for development. The results of the program have had the far-reaching and durable affect of preserving tens of thousands of acres of natural landscape -- benefiting tourism, the timber industry, wildlife, and the unique quality of life loved by so many New Hampshire residents. I'm opposed to any legislation that would make enrolling land in the program more difficult or restrictive for property owners. For a history and analysis of the program, please see the New Hampshire section in the 2009 book "Twentieth-Century New England Land Conservation: A Heritage of Civic Engagement." I co-wrote that chapter with NH Charitable Foundation president Richard Ober. It ends this way, quoting long-time journalist and former NH commissioner of agriculture Steve Taylor: The current-use victory — daunting and difficult as it was — may have become the single most important piece of New Hampshire’s land conservation history: by the year 2000, almost half of the land in the state would be enrolled in the program, more than the White Mountain National Forest, all of the State Parks, refuges, sanctuaries, and easement-protected acreage, combined. As Steve Taylor put it, “Current use was the front-line tool.”