Conservation?

I'm on our town conservation commission. We are slowly getting back to business after several years of somnolence. We are discussing what should be the goals for the management of town lands - balancing uses like recreation, wildlife habitat and plant species preservation, income from timber harvesting, what?

Mostly the land parcels had been acquired by tax lien years ago when they weren't considered to be worth much. A few of the large parcels have been harvested of timber, but mostly they have sat there, undeveloped, available for public access, hunting, etc., but never promoted for any use.

One of us suggested that we make it a goal in these tough economic times to try to produce income from timber harvesting equal to the revenue the land would bring from property tax if it were on the tax rolls. Another suggested that if we were including economic issues in our plan, we should have the lands appraised for possible sale. After all, we could sell one (or more) of the large pieces to a well healed buyer, with a conservation easement limiting development to one house, requiring most of the land to be left 'forever wild', perhaps even requiring some public access. We could get a large sum for the town coffers and add a big sum to the annual property tax rolls.

What is conservation? Probably not selling our land, we agree. We're making progress...