Right now, the Equestrian Land Conservation Resource (ELCR) needs your assistance to extend the tax incentives for permanent conservation easements, the most useful form of private land conservation. Your support for the federal legislation to permanently extend the tax incentives for donating conservation easements can help make it happen.

Make sure your elected representatives know about the beautiful places in your community that you treasure. Give them the opportunity to enjoy the view sheds, nature trails and historic farm and ranchland that you cherish. Invite congressional representatives to attend an equine event. You can even involve your local newspaper.

The current legislation, which is set to expire this December, increases the federal tax deduction landowners can take for donating conservation easements from 30% of their annual income to 50%. It also allows qualifying farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100% of their income; and it extends the carry-forward period in which a donor can claim tax deductions for a voluntary conservation agreement from five years to 15 years.

This legislation has been instrumental in increasing the amount of land that our country’s 1,100-plus land trusts hold under easement. That’s why if you own land that needs to be preserved for horses and riders, now is the time to consider donating an easement. To find a land trust near you, go to the Land Trust Alliance’s website at www.lta.org.

Landowners have found that conservation easements can be flexible and appropriate conservation tools. People execute conservation easements—a negotiated contract between the landowner and a land trust or government agency that transfers with the title in perpetuity—because they want to protect their land from inappropriate development while maintaining private ownership and being able to pass it on to family members. By removing or decreasing the land's development potential, the easement lowers its market value, which in turn lowers estate taxes.

Between 2000 and 2005, by local and state land trusts doubled the amount of land protected by easements, to 6.2 million acres.

While the Equestrian Land Conservation Resource (ELCR) doesn’t hold conservation easements, we can help you tailor one to your needs. The ELCR’s leaders can help you insure that horses are an important part of any conservation easement you donate.

To contact the ELCR, visit www.elcr.org or call the office in Lexington, KY, at (859) 455-8383.