RUSH TO CONSERVE

Landowners Rush to Beat Tax Deadline on Conservation Easements

By Headwaters News, 11-09-07

If Congress does not reauthorize the Pension Protection Act of 2006, most of the tax benefits of putting conservation easements on land will disappear on Dec. 31.

The Casper Star Tribune reported this week that many of the groups that work with landowners to set up conservation easements in Wyoming said they’re overwhelmed with deals pitched in an effort to beat that deadline. The Teton Regional Land Trust, which works with landowners in both Idaho and Wyoming, has more than three times the number of projects this year as it normally does, and another Wyoming land trust agent said the demand for conservation agreements has put appraiser in great demand, creating a bottleneck for those deals.

But tax benefits aren’t the only reason conservation easements are sought for property.

In Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Salt Lake County used $8.7 million of its $48-million voter-approved open space funds to secure the Rose Canyon Ranch, a 1,700-acre parcel of land that lies on the valley’s west side. County officials said the newly acquired lands, combined with Yellow Fork Park and land owned by the Bureau of Land Management, will provide area residents nearly 4,000 acres of land for recreation. The protected acres also provide habitat for a herd of 750 elk, wild turkeys and mountain lions.

Protecting critical habitat for the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, along with habitat for greater sage-grouse, mule deer, elk, black bears, mountain lions, several species of trout and other small mammals and birds prompted the Department of Wildlife to purchase a conservation easement on 2,000 acres on Colorado’s Western Slope. The Grand Junction Sentinel reported that the Yampa Valley Land Trust will manage the 2,000-acre easement.

The Lunney Mountain Ranch easement wasn’t the only one secured this week. The Sentinel also reported that the Mesa Land Trust had secured an easement on 114 acres of land owned by the Gateway Canyons Resort. The parcel of land lies between Whitewater and Gateway, and includes the mansion built in 1918 by Col. Laurence LaTourett Driggs of New York.  Mesa Land Trust officials said that the addition of the 114 acres brings the amount of land the trust manages in Unaweep Canyon and is working on additional deals to protect more lands.

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