A conservation easement is a restriction placed on a piece of property to protect its associated resources.The easement is either voluntarily donated or sold by the landowner and constitutes a legally binding agreement that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place on the land in perpetuity while the land remains in private hands.
Easements are legal agreements between landowners and land trusts that permanently prohibit development of the land in order to protect it. Easements are based on the premise that the best way to save ecologically significant land is to let its owners keep it. They encourage owners to continue doing whatever they had been doing (or not doing) to make their properties ecologically valuable in the first place.
Conservation easements protect land for future generations while allowing owners to retain many private property rights and to live on and use their land, at the same time providing them with tax benefits.
Easement philosophy is probably best summed up by a Lakota proverb: "We don't inherit land from our parents; we borrow it from our children."
Property Owners' Tax Benefits for Conservation Easements could End Soon
Landowners may have a limited time to get expanded federal tax benefits for donating conservation easements on their property. Recent changes to the tax code are set to expire in 2008
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Landowners who have donated a conservation easement in 2006 or 2007 may take advantage of the incentives. The current federal law does the following:
Raises the maximum tax deduction a landowner can take for donating an easement from 30 percent of adjusted gross income to 50 percent.
Allowed qualifying full-time farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100 percent of their adjusted gross income from their federal taxes.
Extended the carry-forward period for a donor to take tax deductions for a voluntary conservation agreement from five to 15 years
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Efforts are under way in Congress to make these changes a permanent part of the tax code. President Bush has also endorsed making the current tax credits permanent in his 2008 budget.