Land Trust Alliance

Family and Fund Conserve 132-Acre Buffalo Ridge Farm

Kimberly Seese — 2010-06-01T17:50:00Z

NC- A family’s love of farming and funding from the Triangle Land Conservancy’s Our Water, Our Land campaign and Johnston County collaboratively conserved the Moore’s 132-acre family farm — Buffalo Ridge Farm.

Expanded Easement Tax Incentives Help Sustain A Local North Carolina Farmer

fdalleo@lta.org — 2008-05-09T19:45:00Z

NC - Curtis Holbert wanted to keep his land the way it is. But Mr. Holbert knew that his current income was not sufficient enough to care for his farm and pay income taxes at the same time.

East Tennesseans Donate 25,000 Acres in 25 Years

Kimberly Seese — 2010-06-01T17:00:00Z

TN- The beauty, heritage, and people of East Tennessee are truly one of a kind. Stretching through the band of counties that extends from the Cumberland Plateau to the Appalachian Mountains - this diverse landscape has been enjoyed by generations of families.

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

Donation Benefits Conasauga, Wildlife

prichardson — 2009-12-15T19:00:00Z

December 15, 2009 | The Daily Citizen | Dalton, GA

Donated Conservation Easements Protect 21,000 Acres Along Critical State Waterways

prichardson — 2010-12-15T16:45:00Z

December 15, 2009 | The Weekly | Atlanta, GA

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

Developer Sets Aside 5,000 Acres

Kimberly Seese — 2010-10-22T00:00:00Z

October 22, 2010 | Coastal Courier | Hinesville, GA

County Gets First Working Conservation Easement

Kimberly Seese — 2011-08-09T04:00:00Z

August 9, 2011 | The Daily Progress | Charlottesville, VA

Cornelia Fort's family, Friends Donate Funds to Save Open Land

Kimberly Seese — 2011-11-18T05:00:00Z

November 18, 2011 | The Tennessean | Nashville

Conservation Trust Has Saved Over 5,399 Acres

Kimberly Seese — 2011-01-07T18:32:37Z

January 6, 2011 | Mount Vernon Patch | VA

Conservation Loans and Investments: Tools to Achieve REPI Success

Kimberly Seese — 2013-02-04T22:27:15Z

When: March 27, 2013, 1:00 PM ET

Sponsor: Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative (REPI) for U.S. Department of Defense

This webinar is designed to educate you and your land conservation partners about tapping into “other people’s money” to potentially overcome the common hurdles you may face from gaps in funding or funding requests not being processed fast enough to meet a closing deadline. Logan Yonavjak, from the Conservation Private Capital Group, and Reggie Hall, from The Conservation Fund, will discuss conservation loans and investments that can help you focus on the project and not worry whether you will have the funds to move on it when the time is right.

Instructions on How to Join the Webinar:

Click this link.
Select “Enter as a Guest” and enter your name.
Upon entering the meeting room, you will be prompted to enter your phone number.
After entering your phone number, you will be called automatically by the system into the audio conference.

Conservation Foundation Assists Sarasota County in Protecting More Than 3,700 Acres

Kimberly Seese — 2010-07-16T13:15:00Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Albert Joerger, Founder/President
Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast
(941) 918-2100

Conservation Foundation Assists Sarasota County in Protecting More Than 3,700 Acres

OSPREY, FL-- Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast announced today, along with Sarasota County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), the purchase of more than 3,700 acres of environmentally sensitive ranchland in Sarasota County for the purposes of habitat conservation, watershed protection and public outdoor recreation.

Conservation Foundation led the negotiations and purchase of the property known as Walton Ranch which will protect 3,759 acres of open space in perpetuity. The ranch purchase price of $22.5 million was made possible in part by a contribution of approximately $13 million of Florida Forever funds from SWFWMD.

Albert Joerger, president of Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, said the acquisition is a key part of creating a conservation corridor linking environmentally sensitive lands in Sarasota County to others in DeSoto County. “The purchase of Walton Ranch will be a game changer for land conservation and eco-tourism in southwest Florida. The acquisition of Walton Ranch expands an ecological corridor that will provide regional connectivity for far ranging species of wildlife, including the endangered Florida panther,” said Joerger.

Walton Ranch has long been regarded as prime property for conservation at the local, regional and State levels. Walton Ranch includes marshes, pine flatwoods and hardwood hammocks which will safeguard regional water supplies and help preserve water quality while providing natural flood protection. Conservation Foundation has been in discussions with the Walton family since 2006 about preserving their land and succeeded in gaining placement of Walton Ranch on the Florida Acquisition and Restoration Council list making it eligible for Florida Forever funding.

“By working together with the community, the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, we are getting closer to our goal of preserving more than 100,000 acres of natural land in Sarasota County,” said Theresa Connor, executive director, Sarasota County Environmental Services. “This will provide opportunities for eco-tourism and nature education that will benefit everyone for generations.”

For more information visit www.conservationfoundation.com or call (941) 918-2100.

About Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast
Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, Inc. works with landowners, businesses, and government to protect and preserve the beauty and natural integrity of the bays, beaches, and barrier islands that make the Gulf Coast special. Conservation Foundation purchases natural areas, holds conservation agreements, and educates for responsible stewardship. Conservation Foundation works with Sarasota County’s acclaimed environmentally sensitive lands program, their neighborhood parks program, and is a partner in efforts to preserve Florida’s natural heritage.

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Conservation Easements Provide the Best Protection for Special Places

Kimberly Seese — 2013-03-31T04:00:00Z

March 31, 2013 | chattanoogan.com | NC