There are places in the Kansas Flint Hills where it’s damned inconvenient to find a convenience store and the nearest Wal-Mart isn’t near at all.

It’s a sea of native range, speckled with cattle, spilling out over every horizon and reaching back across history.

It’s wide open spaces and a ranching legacy teeming with tales of people and places that brought us to here and now.

Jim and Cathy Hoy would like to keep it that way. On December 20 of 2007, the Hoys donated a conservation easement on 655 acres of Flint Hills ranchland north of Cassoday to the Ranchland Trust of Kansas.

In a nutshell, the Hoys continue to own the property and continue to use it as a working ranch. They determine who comes and goes and, should they choose, they can sell it.

What they can’t do with the land is develop it in a manner contrary to the conservation easement agreement which, in this case, means it must continue as a working ranch and not be developed in any other way.

And, whenever the deed for the property is transferred, that agreement goes right along with it.

So, no matter how fast the world spins, you’ll never see a convenience store, or a subdivision, or a plowed field, or a car lot, or any other kind of development on the Hoy place.

It will forever be a working ranch and that’s exactly the way Jim and Cathy Hoy want it.

“We feel like we’ll be leaving more than just land,” Cathy explains. “We’ll be leaving our family heritage and helping to preserve the ranching legacy of the Flint Hills.”

The Ranchland Trust of Kansas was formed in 2003 when members of the Kansas Livestock Association saw a need to preserve “working landscapes”---the ranchland itself as well as the purpose it has fulfilled for generations of Kansas stockmen and their families.

Mike Beam is the executive director of the organization which stands as a separate entity from KLA and he’s gratified by the choice Jim and Cathy Hoy made.

“The Hoys are accomplishing a lot with this easement,” he says. “In addition to preserving the land and the working ranch legacy, they’re helping get this effort going---their parents were pioneers and they are pioneers.”

Beam points out that a conservation easement isn’t for every landowner but it can be an important tool for many. The donation of an easement often qualifies as a charitable contribution under federal tax laws and there can be estate succession advantages.

Because the easement limits future use, it may reduce the value of the property, thereby reducing estate or gift taxes and making it easier to pass property on to the next generation.