Sen. Baucus Introduces Conservation Incentive Bill

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) February 1, 2007 – Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) introduced legislation yesterday to ensure that a temporary tax incentive for conservation by family farmers and ranchers keeps on working. The 2006 law, which allowed modest-income landowners to benefit from protecting important natural and historic resources on their land, was set to expire at the end of this year. Senator Baucus’s bill would make the law permanent. Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA) cosponsored the bill.

Today the Bush Administration announced that the incentive in the Baucus-Grassley bill permanent is included in their FY 2008 Budget proposal as a featured part of the work of the President’s Cooperative Conservation Task Force.

“We are losing far too much of our wildlife, scenic, and historic heritage,” said Land Trust Alliance President Rand Wentworth. “The Baucus-Grassley bill, by providing real incentives for conservation, will help farmers, ranchers and other private landowners protect the best, not only in Montana and Iowa, but across the country.” He added, “We applaud the Administration and Senators Baucus and Grassley for their bipartisan commitment to private land conservation in America.”

The 2006 law, also authored by Senator Baucus, extends the carry-forward period for tax deductions for voluntary conservation agreements from 5 to 15 years and raises the cap on those deductions from 30 percent of a donor's adjusted gross income to 50 percent - and to 100 percent for qualifying farmers and ranchers. This allows ranchers, farmers and other modest-income landowners to get a much larger benefit for donating very valuable development rights to their land.

“I know many ranchers who want to protect the land that they have lived and worked on for generations, but need some help to make it happen,“ said John Lunt, a family rancher and conservationist from Wyoming. “Better conservation tax incentives will help my friends and neighbors preserve their land without putting their family’s economic future at risk.”

Voluntary conservation agreements, also known as conservation easements, are an important tool for land conservation. When landowners donate voluntary conservation agreements, they protect resources important to the public by giving up future development rights, while retaining ownership and management of the land.

A broad coalition of national conservation groups, hunting and recreation groups, and Western ranchers supported the 2006 enactment.

The Land Trust Alliance is a national conservation organization that represents 1,667 local and regional land trusts that conserve land for the benefit of their communities and their natural resources. Land trusts are volunteer-led, local charities that accept private, voluntary donations of land, fulfilling landowners’ wishes to keep their land as it is for their children and future generations. For more information, please visit www.lta.org.

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