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Keeping Virginia green with easements EASEMENT ACREAGE GROWING IN REGION

December 27, 2007 12:35 am

By RUSTY DENNEN

One of the largest conservation easements ever in the Fredericksburg area was recorded in March.

The land, along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, is one of hundreds of tracts protected this year in the region.

The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries jointly hold the 4,232-acre easement, which runs for 60 miles upstream along the rivers and their tributaries on land owned by the city of Fredericksburg.

Bob Lee, executive director of the the Virginia Outdoors Foundation--the state's largest conservation easement holder--said 2007 is shaping up to be a good year for land conservation, though short of 2006's record-setting pace.

Some 346 easements totaling 71,227 acres were recorded in 2006. That compares with about 70,000 acres expected by this year's end. Conservation easements restrict development, preserving green space. Landowners keep title to their property and get state and federal tax benefits.

Many landowners rushed to get conservation easements last year after the General Assembly scaled back the state's generous land preservation tax-credit program as of Jan. 1, 2007.

Last year, if a landowner donated an easement valued at $1 million, he could claim tax credits on 50 percent, or $500,000. This year it dropped to 40 percent, or $400,000.

Landowners can use up to $100,000 of credits a year, and sell the rest.

There's a $100 million cap on credits that can be claimed this year. Last year, with no cap, more than $200 million in credits were registered with the state.

Lee said the economy this year also may be affecting land conservation programs.

"We're seeing maybe a little bit of fallout from the credit crisis," Lee said. Lenders are concerned about anything that might affect land values.

Linda Crowe, director of land conservation with The Nature Conservancy in Charlottesville, said there has been a noticeable difference in easements this year.

"We did see a tapering off, which is too bad. But business is still good and conservation is still happening at a good pace," she said. "Virginia still has a very good tax credit that should keep landowners coming back," she said.

Earlier this month, wildlife photographer and retired executive Dennis Liberson of Great Falls donated 119 acres along Goose Creek in northern Fauquier County to The Nature Conservancy.

The conservancy also completed an easement on a 1,400-acre pine forest in Sussex County, south of Petersburg.

"That's a really great easement and an important conservation area" that protects habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers, Crowe said.

Other easements have protected animals such as the canebrake rattlesnake and Eastern big-eared bat, rare plants such as the sensitive joint vetch, and some species of freshwater mussels.

"It shows how private landowners are doing their part to protect rare species and unique natural communities as well as some of the representative species that we all know and love," Crowe said.

A large easement is in the works in Highland County, west of Staunton, she said.

"On the smaller end, we've had them as small as 9 acres. That one was an addition to some property we got a few years ago on the Mattaponi River."

Last year, The Nature Conservancy protected about 5,600 acres in Virginia through easements and gifts of land. This year, the total is about 3,200 acres. The nonprofit organization has protected 117 million acres and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide.

Landowners all have their reasons for wanting to participate, Crowe said.

"Most landowners have a love of the land. However, not everyone is in a position to give it away without compensation. That's what made tax credits so great."