Upper St. Clair coal producer Consol Energy Inc. is donating 5,000 acres in three states to a nonprofit wilderness group, becoming the latest Pittsburgh contributor to a nationwide land-preservation effort that includes an unprecedented 1 million-acre donation from the Mellon family.
The Consol and Mellon gifts are a twist in the typically hostile relationship between corporate interests and preservationists.
"It might look like a shotgun wedding, but it's not," said Consol Chief Executive Officer Brett Harvey.
"It's part of what we do."
Consol is donating land in Pennsylvania, Illinois and West Virginia to The Conservation Fund, an Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit group that preserves wilderness, wetlands and historic sites across the United States.
Since 1985, Consol has donated 33,000 acres of mined land to the nonprofit preservation group, benefiting from the relationship by deducting the land's appraised value from its tax bills. Its recent donation includes a 240-acre wooded tract in Fayette County.
But what makes Consol's gift notable is its part in the larger pattern of wildlife-related land acquisitions, support and donations from Pittsburgh's corporate sector -- a pattern that now covers the entire nation.
"Pittsburgh has a wonderful reservoir of interest in the conservation movement," said Pat Noonan, chairman of The Conservation Fund and a person credited with bringing together environmentalists and deep-pocketed donors around the country.
Yet, "it is not known for that."
Mellon Bank and Consol are among the local corporations to have donated land in more than 15 states to The Conservation Fund, which often resells the property and uses the proceeds for the acquisition of endangered wildlife or historic sites.
But even more significant is the participation of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, one of the 20 largest philanthropic groups in the United States. Founded by the family responsible for some of the country's largest industrial corporations, the foundation recently concluded, with the help of The Conservation Fund, a 15-year, $400 million effort to acquire 1 million historically significant or environmentally pristine acres.
The foundation donated that land to local, state and federal agencies. It is considered one of the largest private land conservation campaigns in American history, and the largest of the last quarter-century.
The Mellons, normally quiet about their work, are going public with their accomplishments in a 100-page book that tallies and illustrates the donations. They did so reluctantly, according to foundation director Michael Watson.
"They didn't want to appear to be blowing their horn and making it appear they were doing this for any other reason than helping the U.S. hang onto some wonderful parcels of land and encouraging others to do it," Watson said.
The trustees of the foundation "are not looking for any kudos on this."
The foundation's purchases, which started in the late 1980s, are enormous.
They include:
300,000 acres of forest, streams, wetlands and wildlife habitat in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. The deal, which Vermont Gov. Howard Dean called the "crown jewel in Vermont land conservation over the past decade," is the largest multistate conservation in the nation's history.
Several Civil War battle sites, including Champion Hill in Vicksburg, Miss., the Cornfield at Antietam, Md., parts of Appomattox, Petersburg, Va., Manassas, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg's East Cavalry Field.
Several parcels used by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their travels through America in the early 1800s, including a campsite in Montana that sits between Glacier and Yellowstone national parks.
More than 20 parcels of beachfront along the Florida coast where turtles nest.
33,805 acres along the Morzhovoi Bay on the Alaskan Peninsula.
12,898 acres, including five miles of coastline, along Maine's Bold Coast -- the easternmost point in the United States.
New Mexico's 5,556-acre Forked Lightning Ranch, home to 100 Indian and Spanish archaeological sites.
93,000 acres in Alligator River, N.C., a refuge for waterfowl and wildlife.
40,000 acres of woodlands, canyons and granite bluffs in West Texas.
Foundation President Seward Prosser Mellon, son of the late Richard K. Mellon, seldom talks about these purchases. Explaining his decision to The New York Times in 1990, Mellon said, "The most important point to remember is that this land next month or next year could be turned into a shopping mall or a trailer park."
Mellon told The Times he planned to visit all the sites purchased by the foundation, saying: "The excitement for me is the warm feeling of stepping on land, floating down river or walking through the wilderness and saying, 'We've preserved this.' "
In another interview this year to Forbes magazine, Mellon said, "Every day there are more people in the world and in America. There are fewer and fewer places for the deer to be and for the bear to be and for the birds to be. Pretty soon we'll have nothing but malls and concrete and asphalt highways. You have to save these places."
The Mellons' support of the environment goes back decades.
Before acquiring and donating 1 million acres to agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Mellon foundation was a major supporter of The Nature Conservancy, which Noonan ran from 1973 to 1980. The Mellons' donation of $25 million to the conservancy in 1983 was at the time the largest grant ever made by a private foundation for conservation purposes.
When Noonan started The Conservation Fund in 1985, the same year he received a "genius" fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Mellons shifted their support from The Nature Conservancy to Noonan's new effort, and a few years later began their "American Land Conservation Program" -- the campaign that led to the purchase of 1 million acres.
They did so with a few requirements: The foundation refused to pay more than fair market value for any land, a public agency had to be willing to take it over and the Mellon name had to kept out of the negotiations. The foundation's participation typically was not disclosed until the contract had been signed.
"We kept the Mellon name behind the negotiations in order to have fair and equitable negotiations with the landowners," said Larry Selzer, president and chief executive officer of The Conservation Fund.
"The Mellons have always valued privacy both as individuals and as a foundation."
While acquiring land, the Mellons made it a goal to buy and preserve property in all 50 states. But now, with that goal completed, the foundation is turning its attention back to its home state of Pennsylvania and taking a particular interest in the French and Indian War sites of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Watson said his organization helped last year to buy a 38-acre site near the Bushy Run Battlefield in Westmoreland County and is part of a team negotiating this year for another 34-acre parcel nearby. Both came up for sale recently, and the Mellons wanted them to be preserved.
In Braddock, the Mellon foundation is part of a team negotiating for two sites significant to Gen. Edward Braddock's July 9, 1755, defeat and death at the hands of French and Indian fighters. That sale is expected to be announced soon.
The Mellon foundation also is one of four that last year acquired the 178-acre LTV coke works in Hazelwood, with an eye toward redeveloping it in a way that respects the surrounding environment. The Conservation Fund, which receives $100,000 in annual operating support from the Mellon foundation, is also involved with that project.
Reflecting on the preservation record of the two brothers who run the Mellon foundation, Selzer said Richard P. Mellon and Seward Prosser Mellon "care very deeply about the land. They come from a long family history of hunting, fishing, and they wanted to do something that would leave a lasting legacy for America."
Dan Fitzpatrick can be reached at< ahref=mailto:dfitzpatrick@post-gazette.com> dfitzpatrick@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1752
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