Nature Conservancy has 'headache'

The nonprofit conservation organization The Nature Conservancy (TNC) claims to have committed more than 92 million acres -- more than 80 million of it in the United States -- since TNC's inception in 1951. But not all of TNC holdings are destined for conservation. The organization sometimes accepts land donations that are meant to be sold so that property TNC deems more valuable for conservation can be purchased.

That's the case with the land on Wasilla's west side that has drawn TNC into a three way tug-of-war involving the city, land investor Gary Lundgren, and attorneys on all three sides.

In the early 1990s, TNC accepted about 400 acres of undeveloped land on both sides of the Parks Highway as a gift from Dow Chemical Corporation. TNC regarded the land as "trade-lands," according to Randy Hagenstein, conservation director of TNC's Alaska office, who said the property was the largest trade-lands parcel ever granted to TNC in Alaska.

TNC's ultimate plan is to use the money earned from the Dow trade-lands to set aside lands for conservation in Alaska. In the past, TNC has been involved in purchasing and setting aside land on Admiralty Island, along the Kenai River and inside the Palmer Hay Flats state game refuge, among other projects. At Palmer Hay Flats, TNC had funding support from Ducks Unlimited and claims to have been instrumental in conserving 1,200 acres in several purchases in and around the game refuge.

Hagenstein said that while the lawsuits have taken up administrative time, they haven't necessarily slowed TNC's other Alaska projects.

"They haven't been sped up by this, of course. It's been more of a very specific programmatic headache than anything else," Hagenstein said.

Documents show that real estate negotiations started in 1998, and the lawsuit between TNC and Lundgren was filed just last month. Hagenstein -- who said this was his first experience with the legal system -- couldn't predict when the headache would subside.

"So far, I haven't been able to predict the outcome of anything on this, so I won't even try on that one," he said.

Because both lawsuits are still unresolved, there are several topics Hagenstein wouldn't comment on. But one thing became clear during the interview -- depositions and round-table meetings with attorneys were not what Hagenstein had in mind when he started working for the nonprofit conservation group.

"This is something that should have been handled amicably up front, and I wish it would have," he said. "A three-way law tangle is an ugly little thing."