The impoverished state that can’t find enough resources to pay teachers has jingling money in its pockets burning a hole. It is therefore reaching out, begging people to put their land in conservation easements. The underlying theme is that freedom is predicated on ownership of property. If we get people to sell their property rights, and then their land, they can become vassals, serfs, or slaves. I’m not saying this is a grand conspiracy, as in people are falling prey to the evil wood spirits. Entropy itself, as applied to civics, follows the unidirectional flow of power to seats of unchecked megalomania.