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From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Preserving Land for the Future

Land trusts conserve our open spaces

Dear EarthTalk: What’s a land trust and how does it help the environment?

–Sam Stout, Darien, Conn.

Land trusts are organizations, usually nonprofits, created to provide long-term stewardship of land, often including areas of historical or archeological significance. They may buy land or accept donation. Legal agreements between the trust, the landowner and the local government then permanently limit development on the land.

Land trusts arose out of public concern for the loss of open space, wildlife habitat and scenic beauty in the face of rampant development on private land during the latter half of the 20th century. More than 1,600 land trusts have since sprung up in a variety of communities across the U.S. Together they have protected some 37 million acres of land, according to the Land Trust Alliance, a Washington, D.C.,-based umbrella group formed in 1981 to help land trusts share information and work more effectively.

When landowners donate parcels to a land trust, they can take advantage of state and federal income tax deductions — similar to any tax-deductible, non-profit donation — while saving considerable money on property and estate taxes moving forward.

The trust can either hold onto the property or, depending on the arrangement with the former owner, sell it to a third party — often a local or state government that commits to turning it into a protected area. Land trusts also sell land to private buyers, usually with strict restrictions on future development. The benefit to keeping the land under private ownership is that it can then stay on local property tax rolls and thus continue to provide revenue for the local government.

Another way land trusts work is through conservation easements, whereby individuals can protect their land but still retain ownership and the option of selling or passing it along to heirs. Future owners of the land are also bound by the easement’s terms, which restrict development and use and are often monitored by a land trust. Conservation easements usually lower the financial value of land (by limiting development potential), but landowners benefit because their property taxes go down accordingly. Likewise, if and when heirs inherit the land, the conservation easement lessens their estate-tax burden.

Every conservation easement is different, but most include provisions limiting or forbidding construction or resource extraction. Often they protect especially sensitive lands such as wetlands. Some easements allow specific parcels to be used for agriculture, ranching or logging. Many allow hiking, camping, bird watching or even hunting — though some specifically ban hunting and are created for that purpose.

Another nonprofit group, the American Land Conservancy, functions like a national land trust to ensure that large or exceptional pieces of property stay out of the hands of developers. Some of American Land Conservancy’s work has led to the creation or expansion of national parks in Colorado, Hawaii and elsewhere.

For more information:

• Land Trust Alliance: www.lta.org.

• American Land Conservancy: www.alcnet.org.

Got an environmental question? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek: or e-mail [email protected]. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.