Land Trust Alliance

For Generations to Come

Kimberly Seese — 2010-08-13T15:35:00Z

August 13, 2010 | mdconline | Marthasville, MO

Farmers Earn Green for Going Green

Kimberly Seese — 2011-08-04T04:00:00Z

August 4, 2011 | Midland Daily News | MI

Farm Owner vs First Energy

Kimberly Seese — 2013-02-14T05:00:00Z

Februarty 14, 2013 | 13abc.com | Fremont, OH

Family’s Land Being Protected

Kimberly Seese — 2010-05-31T15:55:00Z

May 31, 2010 | Daily News - Online | Iron Mountain, MI

Family Preserves Nearly 700 Acres in Huron Co.

Kimberly Seese — 2010-12-03T00:00:00Z

December 3, 2010 | Western Reserve Land Conservancy | Novelty, OH

Family Places 400 Acres of Pristine Blufftop Land in Conservation Easement

Kimberly Seese — 2011-10-05T13:00:59Z

October 2, 2011 | Winona Daily News | Fountain City, Wi

Ernest and Joseph Haugen Preserving a Tradition on the Farm

Kimberly Seese — 2011-10-04T18:45:19Z

September 26, 2011 | LaCrosse Tribune | Coon Valley, WI

Easement Monitoring Done Right

Kimberly Seese — 2012-12-03T18:31:13Z

Date: January 29, 2013
Time: 2:00-3:30 pm Eastern
Instructor: Jane Ellen Hamilton
Cost: $55 before 1/28, then cost will increase to $65
Level: Beginner / Intermediate

REGISTER ONLINE >>

Monitoring conservation easements will help ensure the land you saved yesterday remains protected tomorrow and beyond. This online workshop provides the nuts and bolts of monitoring from pre-monitoring preparation to post-monitoring work. This course will provide staff and volunteers with an overview of how to conduct a visit and an understanding of what monitoring is and its importance to land conservation.

You will learn how to:

Prepare for a safe and effective visit
Conduct a thorough monitoring visit
Complete post-monitoring work
Address possible violations

The workshop is based on the Standards and Practices Curriculum course “Conservation Easement Stewardship” (electronic copy available here )

Durable Collaborations: Securing Financial and Human Resources for Enduring Conservation

Kimberly Seese — 2013-03-13T21:15:07Z

Date: April 10, 2013
Time: 2:00 pm -3:30 pm ET
Instructors: Dale Bonar, Jim Morris
Level: Beginner / Intermediate
Cost: $55 before 4/9, then cost will increase to $65

REGISTER ONLINE >>

When a land trust accepts an easement or fee land, it promises to care for it forever. Securing the necessary financial and human resources to run a professional, sustainable conservation operation is becoming increasingly difficult. So, how can we keep the best of local conservation while ensuring conservation quality and permanence? Through collaboration. Collaborations occur along a continuum, from informal networking and project-sharing to structural integration with shared staff or even merger. Durable collaborations are robust, mutually beneficial and long-lived approaches that enable groups to leverage their combined efforts for greater impact. This webinar will cover the essentials of successful collaborations and what you need to know before entering into any agreement.

Participants will learn:

The range of collaborative opportunities
The risks and benefits of collaborating
Strategies for determining whether collaboration is right for your land trust
Steps necessary to ensure successful outcomes for all parties

Don’t Throw Charities Off the Fiscal Cliff

Kimberly Seese — 2012-12-21T05:00:00Z

There have been heated discussions in the news about cutting the tax deductions you take for giving to charities. Assertions I’m hearing about who benefits from the charitable tax deduction are short-sighted.

No one is better off financially after making a charitable gift. While a donor may get some reduction in taxes, their gift to benefit others is vastly larger than the tax deduction. Plus, charities have a multiplier effect on donations: every dollar that the tax deduction costs the government generates more than $4 in charitable programs.

Through the charitable deduction, Americans are provided an incentive to support a wide range of charities working to solve problems in communities across the country, contributing immeasurably to the health and welfare of our country. At a time when government resources are shrinking, it makes no sense to discourage people from giving to charities when they need it the most.

Tax benefits for charitable contributions started in 1919 and has persisted through any number of major tax reforms. Hundreds of thousands of charitable enterprises of all sorts – from the Red Cross to Feeding America to Opera America – have built their business models around it, and they have asked for our help in defending it. I think defending tax benefits for charitable contributions is a good idea.

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) was right when he said “Charities today face the prospect of enduring another recession that will again put downward pressure on charitable giving. This is not the time to reduce the charitable deduction and further suppress the incentive to give.”

The Land Trust Alliance represents 1,700 land conservation groups that work with willing land owners to protect our natural heritage and provide benefits of clean water and air, fresh, local food and healthy places to live and work.

We can certainly argue about the merits of various attempts to wrangle more out of the tax code for conservation (there have been lots of those). But on the current issue of capping deductions on charitable giving now in front of policymakers, I see only negative effects and little or no interest amongst policymakers in finding an appropriate way to mitigate those or create a useful alternative.

All Americans should support greater fiscal responsibility for the federal government, and we are already seeing real consequences of irresponsibility in the form of cuts in spending – including spending for conservation in a host of government programs (including LWCF, NAWCA, FRPP, WRP and NFWF). This despite the fact that real spending on conservation programs is not a driver of our fiscal problems, having only increased 2% over the last 30 years in real dollars. We can’t put ourselves above the need for a solution – but we need to speak up so that policymakers understand what is at stake.

Any limits to the charitable deduction would hurt America’s charities by directing resources away from them and the millions of people they serve. As Congress and the White House look for a way to back off the fiscal cliff, they need to find a way to keep charities in the U.S. from going over one themselves.

Rand Wentworth
President, Land Trust Alliance
202-841-0886 | rwentworth@lta.org

DNR Land Deal Largest Conservation Purchase

Kimberly Seese — 2012-05-17T04:00:00Z

May 17, 2012 | Wisconsin State Journal | Madison

Deal signed to buy Saugatuck area dunes property

prichardson — 2009-12-11T16:35:00Z

December 11, 2009 | mlive.com | Grand Rapids, MI

Crucial Wildlife Habitat Connection

fdalleo@lta.org — 2009-08-19T16:25:00Z

SD - Dolly and Harry Evans couldn’t bear the thought of their ranch someday being broken up or developed. The place had been in their family for generations; even their ancestors homesteaded nearby. They wanted permanent protection for their land.

Crown Jewel in the Emerald Necklace

fdalleo@lta.org — 2009-08-21T15:40:00Z

MI - A new nature preserve created in Harbor Springs supports a range of habitats, including hardwood and pine forests, a boggy area, an old orchard, and vernal spring pools.

County Working on Farmland Preservation

Kimberly Seese — 2012-04-12T04:00:00Z

April 12, 2012 | The Ann Arbor Chronicle | MI