30 Years of Private Land Conservation Threatened

By Susan A. Lackey, Executive Director - Washtenaw Land Trust

It's not very often that Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, agree on a piece of public policy. For 30 years, that's been the case with the tax benefits that have encouraged private property owners to preserve their land through gifts of land and land preservation agreements. With little or no public money, these gifts have voluntarily preserved millions of acres of land in all 50 states.

Yet, Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) has focused on a handful of individual abuses, and used them as an excuse to propose wholesale changes in this highly successful program. If the changes proposed in January by the JCT are adopted, private land conservation in the U.S. will be drastically reduced or stop altogether.

The JCT has proposed drastic cuts in tax benefits for legitimate, voluntary donations of land and land preservation agreements. First, deductions on donated land would be limited to the cost basis, punishing many farmers and other long-term landowners. In addition, if you donate a land preservation agreement and you live on the land, your deduction is slashed by 66%; if you don't live on the land, you get nothing at all.

If the JCT proposals are adopted, landowners will have little if any incentive to donate conservation land for public benefit, and the significant benefits of conservation donations will be lost-

• Conservation donations secure natural areas and open space at a fraction of what would be required to buy the land outright.


• The public benefits are gained without any public investment, and there is no public funding need for maintenance, costly regulatory intervention, or liability.


• Land preservation agreements allow the land to remain in private hands and on the tax rolls.


• When agreements can be obtained for several adjoining parcels, it becomes possible to maintain true wildlife corridors or consolidated blocks of working farms.

Locally, these proposals could end the work of the Washtenaw Land Trust (and other local non-profit conservancies) to protect the local natural areas and working farms of Washtenaw, Jackson, and Ingham counties. The first land trust established in Michigan, Washtenaw Land Trust has protected 36 parcels totaling more than 1,700 acres. The majority of these parcels, twenty-five, are protected through donated land or land preservation agreements.

These donations provide public parks, nature preserves, water quality protection, groundwater recharge, wildlife habitat, productive working farms, and green spaces for our community and for future generations, all at very low cost.

According to the Land Trust Alliance, the amount of land protected through land trusts is twice the amount of the entire national park system. Land trusts rely heavily on donated lands and land preservation agreements to do their work. There simply are not enough resources to achieve our goals otherwise.

The loss of farmland and open space in our region, and across the nation, is accelerating. Now is not the time to eliminate conservation tools, particularly those that are low-cost, high-gain, and completely voluntary.

Note: The Senate Finance Committee plans to hold hearings on this issue on June 8.

About the Washtenaw Land Trust: The Washtenaw Land Trust is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization that works to protect farmland and natural areas throughout Washtenaw County and the surrounding region.

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Washtenaw Land Trust
info@washtenawlandtrust.org
734-302-LAND(5263)