For three days last October, 40 people met in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the invitation of The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to discuss their private efforts to save land in the United States. The people who participated and their counterparts at home represent a complementary alternative to government involvement in land conservation and preservation. They are part of a diverse and innovative group known collectively as the “land trust movement." Whether they call themselves “trusts," “conservancies," “foundations," or "reliances," members of this movement share one unifying characteristic: a commitment to the preservation of land resources (natural, aesthetic, cultural, economic or social). They are organized to preserve land for the public good through private efforts. While a few land trusts date back several decades, the emergence of local private land conservation groups on a widespread basis is a relatively recent phenomenon. Since 1975, local programs have been organized at the rate of 20 per year and now total over 400 nationwide. They have so far secured over 675,000 acres of open space and resource land in all parts of the United States. Types of Land Trasts The majority of the people who attended the conference in Massachusetts came from trusts that work specifically to preserve open space, which traditionally is not developed or farmed but is preserved for public recreation. In the case of wilderness areas, it may be preserved in its natural state. The Nature Conservancy (1800 N. Kent St., Arlington, VA 22209) is an example of this type of environmental trust. Emerging from the environmental land trust movement is the farm trust movement. The New American Farm Land Trust (1717 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20036) is an example of a trust established to save prime farm land. They are concerned with public educaHon, land protection, and policy development as well as with providing technical assistance to help save farms from urbanization. Community land trusts go beyond the preservation of natural resources to the preservation of the cultural, economic and social resources of the land. CLT's are primarily focused on land for housing and productive uses. They work in both rural and urban settings to preserve family farms and revitalize neighborhoods. The Featherfield Farm project in southwest Georgia is an example of a large-scale CLT. It set out to build an enHre small town on a several-thousand acre farm under the control of local low-income people. Ownership is for the common good by providing access to land and decent housing as well as facilitating long-term management. Community land trusts offer support and assistance to another group of people who are outside of the land trust movement but closely aligned with it: the homesteaders and commune dwellers who have intenhonally located in a community in order to establish'ties with the land. The Land Trust Legal Model Homesteads and communes are faced with the problems of setting up a legal system to hold htle to the land. The land trust model may offer them a legal "statement" of their shared values toward the land. Legally, a land trust is a group of people who have joined together in the form of a non-profit corporation, and because the group is formed for purposes that benefit the public interest, it is eligible to apply for tax exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This status can serve as a double-edged sword: it breathes life into the organization by allowing tax- deductible donations while at the same time choking it with IRS restrictions and standards. Once a group is incorporated as a non-profit corporation (done at the state level) and has gained tax-exempt status (done at the federal level) it has a wide variety of tools at its disposal to actively seek acquisition of land and its resources. These tools include charitable contributions, conservation easements, bargain sales and limited development rights. Charitable contributions. The charitable contribution deduction in the Internal Revenue Code allows taxpayers to donate land, interests in land, cash and other resources to tax exempt organizations and subtract these gifts from their taxable income. Conservation easements. An easement places a use restriction on the title to land. A conservation easement defines what limited use is allowed. For instance, the Marin Land Trust holds conservation easements to farms which were threatened by high speculation which would convert that land to urban use. By granting the conservation easements to the land trust the farmers protected their land from urbanization and thereby served the public interest by preserving agricultural land, food production and rural community. The easement reduces the value of the land from its speculated use to its actual use. The trusting of the easement legally binds the owner or future owner to the restricted use (agricultural only) in perpetuity. Conservation easements have become a popular tool
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