CONSERVATION CORNER
Land Conservation In Jeopardy
by James L. Cummins

A recent staff report by Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation recommends dismantling tax deductions for private landowners who voluntarily conserve their land with conservation easements, a program that has been essential to conservation efforts around the nation.

For more than 25 years, these deductions have led to more than 34 million acres of working agricultural lands, working forests, fish and wildlife habitats and historic landscapes being protected and preserved for future generations.

Currently, landowners who care about conservation have several options. They can donate a conservation easement, which protects these resources in perpetuity, but allows families to continue to live on and farm the land and pass the property on to their heirs. Now, they receive a tax deduction for the value of the development rights they give up.

The Joint Committee proposes: (1) forbidding any deduction for donating an easement if the landowner continues to live on the land; and (2) in all other cases, allowing the donor to deduct only 1/3 the value of their donation.

This is directly opposed to the private property rights of a private landowner to get the fair market value of his or her land. They can also choose to donate their land, or sell it for less than its value. Landowners who do so qualify for a tax deduction.

The Joint Committee would slash this incentive, by limiting deductions to the price the landowner originally paid for the property (their "basis"). This would make it extremely difficult for farmers, ranchers and other residents who have owned their lands for decades to be able to donate.

At a time when development and urban sprawl threaten much of what makes our communities livable - clean air and water, open space, parks, fish and wildlife habitat - private landowners have a critical role to play in conservation. With state and federal budget deficits limiting government purchase of conservation land, one of the best ways to conserve America's natural legacy is through incentives to private landowners. This approach is working because it encourages voluntary charitable gifts, respects private property rights and keeps land on the tax rolls.

The proposals of the Joint Tax Committee doesn't prevent abuse of the existing laws, instead, they punish all donors, fail to identify the abusers and wreaks havoc with private, voluntary conservation, at a time when it is needed more than ever.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi. Their web site is www.wildlifemiss.org.