Intro: | Texas A&M researchers predict the loss of agricultural land may prompt a change in the way that land is valued. Bill McLean reports. |
McLean: | Dr. Neil Wilkins says the market for agricultural land is based on real estate values that are not entirely accurate. |
Wilkins: | :08 - The environmental services that private lands provide for people in urban areas are invisible, oftentimes. |
McLean: | Dr. Wilkins uses the Trinity River as an example because it flows out of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and, before it gets to Lake Livingston... a major source of Houston's drinking water... it is filtered through 350 miles of private river channel, tributary and wetlands. That natural filtration, he says, performs the service of far more expensive water treatment plants, yet that value is not figured into the property value. Dr. Wilkins predicts the day will come when that value is calculated into the sales price, when a market emerges for that value... to offset artificial water treatment costs. |
Wilkins: | :17 - That market place is going to emerge, so that as we develop and lose the land that we are bound to lose in the future, we lose those lands that are of the lowest priority as far as conservation and ecosystem services are concerned, and we keep those lands that are the highest priority. |
McLean: | Wilkins says the same is true in West Texas, where landowners will be rewarded for clearing water-intensive plants that inhibit aquifer recharge, which affects the cost of water provided by a utility. Dr. Wilkins says the sooner this market for a land's environmental services is recognized and valued, the sooner land use trends will reflect their true environmental value. |
McLean: | In Austin, I'm Bill McLean. |
McLean: | Additional actuality, Wilkins says the cost of paying landowners who manage their property with accepted and measurable environmental practices could be less expensive than trying to remediate a natural resource after the fact. Audio is 12 seconds, coming in 3-2-1. |
Wilkins: | :12 - That's not a government subsidy, that's paying for services, and it's the best deal that someone in Houston could get for water treatment... is to pay a landowner in the Trinity River bottom to create a wetland. |
McLean: | Additional actuality, Wilkins says establishing an accurate value for the environmental services provided by a tract of land will sacrifice less valuable agricultural land to urban development, and maintain the environmental benefits that are largely unnoticed in today's marketplace. Audio is 26 seconds, coming in 3-2-1. |
Wilkins: | :26 - We will continue to lose farms and ranches without regard to the other services they provide, unless we put a value on those services. Once we put a value on those services then as we lose farms and ranches to development, it will be with regard to the relative value that they provide for the natural resources that are needed to sustain our economy. |
