State Tax Credit Summary

By: Conservation Resource Center
The Conservation Resource Center has assembled a report to assess the effectiveness of state income tax credits for the donation of conservation easements.
https://www.landcan.org/article/State-Tax-Credit-Summary/210/

 

Land Preservation - An Essential Ingredient in Smart Growth

By: Tom Daniels and Mark Lapping
ABSTRACT  The preservation of land for working rural landscapes, wildlife habitat, urban parks, recreational trails, and protecting water supplies and floodplains is emerging as an integral component of smart growth programs.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Land-Preservation---An-Essential-Ingredient-in-Smart-Growth/1732/

 

Coastal Forest Conservation Initiative Guidelines

By: Gulf Engineers and Consultants
Coastal forests in Louisiana have long been recognized as valuable for the goods and services that they provide. However, since coastal forests have become increasingly vulnerable to pressures from natural and anthropogenic forces, these critical habitats are in danger of being lost.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Coastal-Forest-Conservation-Initiative-Guidelines/1629/

 

Conservation of Private Lands - Opportunities and Challenges for the States

By: Patricia E. Salkin
Private land conservation initiatives are a critical component of any state-level quality of life agenda. Although concerns over sprawl, including the loss of prime agricultural lands and significant green space, continue to be one of the underlying rallying cries in support of state-level smart growth initiatives, the fact remains that with few exceptions, conservation of privately-owned working lands has not received significant attention in smart growth literature or conferences.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Conservation-of-Private-Lands--Opportunities-and-Challenges-for-the-States/266/

 

Putting Smart Growth to Work in Rural Communities

By: Nadejda Mishkovsky, Matthew Dalbey, Stephanie Bertaina, Anna Read, and Tad McGalliard
Many rural communities are facing challenges, including rapid growth at metropolitan edges, declining rural populations, and loss of working lands.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Putting-Smart-Growth-to-Work-in-Rural-Communities/472/

 

NextGen Conservation - Peninsula Open Space Trust engages Millennials in its mission.

By: Kirsten Ferguson
The 80 million-plus Millennials in the United States represent the next generation of potential land trust supporters and advocates.
https://www.landcan.org/article/NextGen-Conservation--Peninsula-Open-Space-Trust-engages-Millennials-in-its-mission/2540/

 

Farmland Conservation 2.0

By: National Young Farmers Coalition
How land trusts can protect America's working farms.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Farmland-Conservation-20/2577/

 

Finding Farmland

By: National Young Farmers Coalition
A farmer's guide to working with land trusts.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Finding-Farmland/2578/

 

13 Components of a Successful Transferable Development Right Program

By: Rocky Mackintosh
For those of you who don’t know, TDR stands for Transferable Development Rights. Simply put, these are typically programs that are designed by local government to allow for the free market transfer of subdivision or development rights from a rural (agricultural and/or conservation) zone to a designated development zone within a jurisdiction.& ...
https://www.landcan.org/article/13-Components-of-a-Successful-Transferable-Development-Right-Program/224/

 

The Importance of Land Trusts to Forestry

By: T.J. McEvoy
Almost everyone in forestry has heard of land trusts since they have become a common fixture especially in areas that are rapidly urbanizing.
https://www.landcan.org/article/The-Importance-of-Land-Trusts-to-Forestry/133/

 

An Overview of Financial Alternatives for Land Conservation Transactions

By: Wade Martin and Sally Ramirez
Clearly, the motivation for a land conservation transaction is often the desire of the landowner to safeguard the property. However, this objective must be balanced with the need to maximize the return to the landowner.
https://www.landcan.org/article/An-Overview-of-Financial-Alternatives-for-Land-Conservation-Transactions/140/

 

State of the Land 2006, A brief inventory of public and private land in the United States

By: Amos Eno and Laura Mass Dover and Willard Dyche
“In wildness is the preservation of the world.” Quoted from an essay by Thoreau lamenting the way in which modern urban life has made natural resources into commodities and isolated people from the natural processes on which their lives depended.
https://www.landcan.org/article/State-of-the-Land-2006-A-brief-inventory-of-public-and-private-land-in-the-United-States/141/

 

How a Conservation Easement Works - Sample example of conservation easement

A simple example illustrates how a conservation easement works in practice. Let’s assume pressure from buyers building vacation homes has pushed the value of land up in recent years to the point where the family is concerned about how the next generation will pay the estate tax bill without selling the land.
https://www.landcan.org/article/How-a-Conservation-Easement-Works--Sample-example-of-conservation-easement/86/

 

Designing a Conservation Easement Amendment Policy

By: Karin Marchetti Ponte
How to can a land trust official identify and comply with legal restraints to amendment?  How can necessary flexibility be built into the easement document?  This paper reflects the earnest desire of an ardent conservationist to take full advantage of opportunities for flexibility that can be found within the law, recognizing that the needs of land ownership and the land itself, are by their nature subject to continual change.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Designing-a-Conservation-Easement-Amendment-Policy/169/

 

Tools For Reducing High Property Taxes in Maine.

By: Andrew A. Cadot
Many owners of real estate in coastal Maine are facing dramatic increases in their property taxes as a result of municipal revaluations, especially those with shorefront or a water view.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Tools-For-Reducing-High-Property-Taxes-in-Maine/120/

 

The Challenge of Maintaining Working Forests in 21st Century America

By: Amos Eno
Recently I made a presentation to the Society of American Foresters (SAF) at their annual conference. My overall theme was that working forests, not wilderness areas and parks, are the prospective foundations of our prosperity in the 21st century.
https://www.landcan.org/article/The-Challenge-of-Maintaining-Working-Forests-in-21st-Century-America/427/

 

Protecting Nature, Harvesting Timber

By: Joe Rankin
How different conservation groups got into managing forestland, and the lessons they've learned. 
https://www.landcan.org/article/Protecting-Nature-Harvesting-Timber/875/

 

Excerpts from California's Wildlife Action Plan applicable to Private Landowners

By: Resources First Foundation - RFF
We have done the work combing through the California Plan and excerpting all of the sections that are relevant to the needs and interested of private landowners.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Excerpts-from-Californias-Wildlife-Action-Plan-applicable-to-Private-Landowners/127/

 

Alternatives to Real Estate Development Deriving Financial Benefits from Conservation and Mitigation Projects in Virginia - a Lender's Collateral Concerns

By: R. Lee Stephens, Jr and Robert J. Allen
In the current economic environment, landowners previously contemplating development or sale of their real property are seeking alternative ways to generate cash flow from their real property assets.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Alternatives-to-Real-Estate-Development-Deriving-Financial-Benefits-from-Conservation-and-Mitigation-Projects-in-Virginia--a-Lenders-Collateral-Concerns/96/

 

Forever Donation

By: Resources First Foundation - RFF
A landowner recently asked us: What is the best way to ensure that the land I donate is not sold? We put the question to the land trust community and it generated quite a bit of activity on the land trust listserv.
https://www.landcan.org/article/Forever-Donation/192/