Land Trusts and Conservation Programs
Several Resource Dimensions’ senior partners hold both immense belief in and have extensive personal experience with conservation easements, land trusts and government programs established to protect unique land resources. Dr. Gustanski began working with land trusts and the tapestry of land conservation tools in the early 1980’s, during the early history of the land trust movement. Between our seven nationally regarded land trust elders alone, we have more than two centuries of experience in serving land trusts and government agencies involved in developing land protection programs and policies in every capacity.

This unique area of specialization combined with our front-line skills in land use planning, economics, natural resource management, law, geography, appraisal, forestry, conservation biology, and a variety of other biophysical disciplines uniquely qualifies Resource Dimensions to provide the broad range of services often required to achieve land conservation goals.

Some of our recent work includes:

Integrated Conservation Easement Valuation Model
Resource Dimensions president, Dr. Gustanski, has developed an extended easement valuation model, which incorporates an ecosystem services valuation module together with typically applied appraisal approach to derive a more complete economic value relative to the full range of ecological services provided by protected lands. The ICEV model has been used in several case study scenarios to assist organizations, agencies, politicians and the general public in understanding the complete nature of ‘values’ being provided by a variety of protected landscapes (e.g., agricultural, wetlands, open space, and cultural/historical).

These analyses have been used to raise public and political awareness, set conservation priorities, and facilitate land use decisions. Valuation studies also provide information on the relative long-term economic benefits of resource use through conservation versus alternate uses that permanently alter land resources and remove these economic benefits. Such valuations have enabled decision-makers to better calculate the trade-offs of various development options with conservation.

National Farmland Conservation Prioritization Model Advisor
Recently, Dr. Gustanski was invited by researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara to serve as an advisor in the development of a national model to aid agencies and organizations in prioritizing farmland for preservation through conservation easements and other methods. The project has been funded by a 3-year grant from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. A unique goal of the model will be to incorporate both the value of ecosystem services and social values.

Public Attitudes on Environment and Land Use Conservation in the Western U.S.
Resource Dimensions’ Dr. Julie Ann Gustanski developed a three-phased process which included focus groups, interviews, and surveys across the spectrum of general public, government agencies, and non-profit sector organizations throughout nine western states to obtain primary data used in developing a multi-criteria decision support model to extend the application of traditional economics and ecological constraints in facilitating regionally based landscape-scale environmental decision-making and long-term strategic planning. The model acknowledges that a complex suite of factors including social values, environmental and land use policies, regional economics and environmental constraints interact to drive individual behaviors at the local and regional level. The 4-year project was a cooperative public-private joint venture partnership funded by various state and federal agencies and national non-profit organizations.

Integrated Land Conservation Decision-Support Models
Since the mid-1990’s Dr. Gustanski has been at the forefront of the field in developing integrated decision-support tools to assist agencies, organizations and communities in strategically integrating land protection into long-range community and regional planning objectives. Models range from complex multi-criteria models structured on a GIS framework to more basic spreadsheet models. All tools developed integrate social, ecological, economic, policy, and parcel specific data to identify the greatest potential for both near and long-term conservation planning.

Land Consumption Analysis
The Resource Dimensions partnership has conducted a variety of land consumption analyses relative to suburban, rural, and ex-urban growth issues in order to answer an array of questions, such as: "How can current needs and objectives be met while bestowing adequate environmental and natural resources to future generations?" and "What social, economic, and behavioral adaptations are required?" Several analyses have focused on evaluation of regulatory and incentive planning tools for redevelopment and conservation. These analyses have been used to demonstrate potential impacts dictated by current zoning (e.g., service, environmental, traffic, and fiscal requirements, etc.) compared against alternatives that may provide a more favorable future.

Conservation Easements & Direct Conservation Projects
The Resource Dimensions conservation team has spearheaded, prepared, and facilitated over 300 successful conservation easement projects resulting in the protection of nearly 1-million acres of easement protected lands in 10 states over more than two-decades. Lands have ranged from family farms to corporate timber holdings, to mountain valleys and historic view-sheds, to critical wetland habitats, temperate forests, and prairie lands. Several of our team members have worked as directors of land trusts, and county-based conservation and planning departments, which provides us with a practical, inside understanding of the various dynamics at play.

In addition to our work with conservation easements, we have been involved in negotiating dozens of conservation land swaps, corporate transfers, and other real estate negotiations for private clients and land trusts on over 75, 000 acres of land in states as Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida, North Carolina.

We have also developed numerous conservation easement baseline monitoring systems for more than a dozen land trusts and government agencies to facilitate annual easement tracking. Currently we are on contract joint with David Evans & Associates to the State of Washington for easement monitoring services.

Conservation-based Community Economic Development Plans
Resource Dimensions has assisted several communities, local and regional governments and economic development councils, Chambers, land trusts, tribes and a host of non-profit organizations to develop conservation-based economic development plans. Through such efforts we have lead various collaborative efforts in developing public participation processes to include diverse community stakeholders throughout the planning process.

Impact Analysis of Open Space Preservation Initiatives
In this study prepared for the Buck’s County Commissioners and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Dr. Gustanski conducted a socio-demographic assessment, evaluated the regional economic dynamics, and drew comparisons between the direct and indirect annual and cumulative costs of the county’s farmland preservation program against the net public costs of permitting residential development of farmland. The analysis was conducted to evaluate the expenditure trade-offs between funding the agricultural land preservation program and the funding of future residential development of farmland in the county.

Organizational Development and Grant writing Assistance
Each member of the Resource Dimensions conservation team has over 20 years of experience specializing in conservation project and program development, land trust organizational management, development and growth, conservation education and outreach, and research-based grants. Through December 2005, together we have helped to raise over $10-Million for various land conservation initiatives across the US and abroad.

Conservation Experts Panel
Several members of the Resource Dimensions’ partnership are considered among the nations’ leaders in the land conservation community. We have engaged in a diverse dialogue over the past several decades—both at home and abroad. From university level courses, to on-the-ground conversations with farmers, to numerous presentations and workshops, on a variety of conservation tools, policies, and program options we have connected with over 200 state, county, and community organizations across the US, and in England, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Mann, Belize and Mexico.