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Land Trust please write to:
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Conservation easements on property, such as this land in Horse Cove, are an effective conservation tool that allows you to continue to own your property, protect it from future development, and earn a Federal tax deduction and a North Carolina tax credit.
The conservation agreement is an effective means of conserving land in North Carolina. A conservation agreement or an easement, have been used to protect lands as varied as mountain ridge tops, piedmont river corridors, farms, Christmas tree farms, and coastal beaches. Nearly half of the 225,000 acres protected by Land Trusts in North Carolina are conservation easements. In Highlands and Cashiers, easements have led to the protection of nearly 1,000 acres.
Because conservation agreements have only recently become popular, most landowners are unaware of how useful this land protection tool can be. Conservation agreements enable landowners to preserve their land, maintain ownership of it, and usually realize significant tax savings and reduced property taxes.
What is a conservation agreement? A conservation agreement is a written agreement between a landowner and a qualified conservation organization such as a Land Trust in which the landowner promises to keep the land in its natural condition and the land trust is granted the right to enforce the agreement and to monitor the property.
The conservation agreement is similar to a declaration of restrictive covenants in a subdivision. It contains a series of restrictions relating to various uses of land.
Conservation agreements are intended to preserve property in its natural, undeveloped condition providing a benefit to the public by conserving open lands, forests, farmland, streams and significant natural resources. Because of the public benefit, there are federal, state, and local tax incentives for the landowner who donates a conservation agreement.
On August 17th, 2006, President Bush signed into law significant new tax incentives for conservation agreement donations that increase these incentives. The new law raises the deduction a landowner can take for donating a conservation agreement from 30 percent of their adjusted gross income in any year to 50 percent and up to a 100 percent for farmers and ranchers; increases the number of years over which a conservation easement donor can take those deductions from 6 to 16 years, and these incentives are in effect for only 2006 and 2007.