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Viewpoint

A Future for Conservation Easements

10/1/2015

 
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As a member of the Board of a Louisiana land trust and someone who has been interested in the use of permanent conservation easements for a number of years, I offer an idea for expanding the use of conservation easements on lands whose owners are “land rich, but cash poor”—that is, the large majority of American landowners.  My goal is to further the utilization of permanent conservation easements (CE) by all Americans. 
   We know the current Federal Tax Code gives the majority of benefits/incentives (although there are some states with their own CE incentives) to those who conserve properties in perpetuity. With a little adjustment, current federal tax law could encourage Americans to preserve more rural lands through use of CEs. Such adjustments could prompt a positive boost to economic activity around our great country without causing the federal government to lose much, if any, tax revenue.
    The idea is to adjust the Tax Code (26 US Code 170 [h]) to allow the tax deduction incentives/benefits to be portable by creating a secondary market for the sale of CE tax deductions. This would encourage small landowners as well as the “land rich and cash poor” to participate in the conservation of lands that in most cases are taken permanently out of rural use because the only option available is to sell the land for development. . . . (more)


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    Conservation, viewed in its entirety, is the slow and laborious unfolding of a new relationship between people and land.
    --Aldo Leopold
    ​There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people.  When one is abused, the other suffers.
    --Wendell Berry

    From the President

    SCP President Chuck Roe looked at land conservation along the route of John Muir's "Southern Trek."​
    ​READ ABOUT IT


    About Viewpoint

    This blog offers views of our Board and partners. We invite  your viewpoint on the following questions:
      --How can we work together to overcome isolation among groups working to protect and conserve land, water, wildlife, biodiversity, urban green spaces, productive farms and forests, and communities?
      --How can we devise means to conserve more natural and rural land resources in corporate ownership (even in "syndicated" partnership ownership)? Can that be done ethically, responsibly, effectively?
      --Is there substantive interest in creating a new regional association of nonprofit groups engaged in land conservation and environmental protection in the southern U.S.--for mutual support and exchange ?
      --Is there a need for a regional approach to promote, assess, recognize, and certify operational standards and practices, and performance excellence for nonprofit environmental resource conservation groups?

        Your thoughts on other topics are welcome as well. Email us to submit a "Viewpoint" essay.

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Southern Conservation Partners
​P.O. Box 33222,  Raleigh N.C. 27636-3222
    Phone: 919-500-6598
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