Presidential Transition Recommendations

Your hard work elevating the policy profile of the land trust community is paying off.  Last week, President-Elect Barack Obama's transition team solicited policy recommendations from the Land Trust Alliance and members of the Department of Interior transition team met in our offices in Washington, D.C. to seek advice from a group of conservation leaders. 

Click here to see our Presidential Transition Recommendations, presented to the Department of Agriculture team on Monday and the Department of Interior team on Wednesday.  These recommendations address a long list of land trust policy proposals, but place a particular focus on our top legislative priorities for 2009:

1. Making the enhanced tax deduction for the donation (or bargain sale) of conservation easements a permanent part of the tax law;
2. Creating a greater incentive for land conservation in the context of estate tax reform; and,
3. Seeing that policy responses to global climate change recognize the important role of forests, rangelands and agricultural lands in mitigating climate change.

The Obama-Biden Transition Team has put out a call for you to "Share Your Vision" for America.  This is your chance to tell the incoming administration about the policies that would be most effective in promoting your conservation work.  You can even upload a photo from one of your conservation projects or ask your easement donors to share an image of their land.  Click here to add your two cents.

Do you or your organization have a relationship with a member of the transition team or an appointee in the new administration?  Please let us know by emailing policy@lta.org.  By pooling our collective strength and relationships we can have an enormous impact in the years ahead.

We look forward to working with you to make these visions a reality!