IN THE NEWS

“THE DOLLARS AND SENSE OF LAND CONSERVATION”

Sponsored by The
Land Trust for Southwest Virginia

Friday, May 23, 2008
12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
(Networking 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.)

Jubilee House Retreat Center - 822 E. Main StreetAbingdon, VA

This seminar will present updates on easement deeds, appraisals and the effect easements have on income taxes and estate planning.  The seminar is geared towards professionals such as attorneys, appraisers, accountants and financial planners.  Landowners will also receive benefit from the information on conservation easements.  The seminar is also open to College faculty, staff and students, and federal and state land management officials who are interested in conservation.  Three easement experts will address the above topics focusing on Virginia and federal tax incentives for land conservation.  The seminar will also include a panel discussion with local stakeholders on conservation easement benefits and landowner concerns.

 Continuing Legal Education Credits (Approval Pending)

 Continuing Professional Education Credits for Accountants & Appraisers

Featured Speakers:
Keynote:  Rebecca McCoy, CPA
A recognized expert on conservation easements and estate planning

Larry Mann, Attorney
Mr. Mann has prepared over 50 conservation easements. City attorney for Lexington, Virginia

Wesley Woods, Appraiser
President-Myers & Woods
Appraisal Group, Inc. 

Registration Fee for Professionals:  $85
Fee for Educators and Government Agency Staff:  $35
No charge for landowners and students

(Includes refreshments and materials)

Registration Deadline:  May 14, 2008

(No refunds after May 16, 2008)

Register Online

or

Download a Printable Brochure

Directions/Map

SEMINAR PROGRAM

12:30-1:00–Registration

1:00-1:10– Introduction
Frank Kilgore, former chair of The Virginia Outdoors Foundation

1:10-2:45–Keynote Address

Rebecca McCoy: Conservation Easements and Tax Law

2:45-3:30–Larry Mann
Lawyer’s role in Preparing and filing conservation easements

3:30-3:45–Break

3:45-4:30–Wesley Woods
Easement/Appraisal Guidelines

4:30-5:30–Panel Discussion
Questions and Answers

5:30-6:30–Networking Hour         

For further information, contact
The Land Trust for Southwest Virginia
Phone: 276-676-3600

E-mail: info@thelandtrustforswva.org

Special Thanks to our Sponsors:

Conservation Partners, LLC
The Nature Conservancy
Holston River Soil and Water District New Peoples Bank

Panel Discussion

Our featured speakers will be joined by the following experts for our Panel Discussion

Additional Panelists

Neal Kilgore – Easement specialist with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation

Broaddus Fitzpatrick – Conservation Partners, conservation consultants

Donald Thayer – Farmer, teacher, and easement donor

Randy Short – Virginia Department of Forestry

Other Seminar – Same Program
New River Land Trust
Thursday, May 22,
Blacksburg, VA

www.newriverlandtrust.org
Phone: 540-951-1704

Lee County property owner working to preserve land

By Walter Littrell

BLACKWATER - After buying a 300-acre farm along Newland Ridge in the Blackwater section of Lee County six years ago, Dr. Michael Hill and his family began working to return the steep land to its native state and to find a way to keep it that way.

The Land Trust for Southwest Virginia is assisting Dr. Michael Hill acheive his dream of transforming his Lee County farm to a wildlife sanctuary. Photo by Walter Littrell.

They checked into various farm programs, but they "were geared to cows and didn't fit into our plan," said the doctor, who was working to repair land damage inflicted by a century of grazing and cropping.

Eventually he learned about the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and contacted officials with that agency. They put him in touch with Bill Wasserman, president of a fairly new conservation group - The Land Trust for Southwest Virginia. Hill said Wasserman then talked him into donating a conservation easement, which to his delight could be tailored to his wants and needs.

"So this land, in perpetuity, can't be developed," said Hill. "This sets the land aside to preserve it in as natural a state as possible. That was more in keeping with our philosophy."

Hill said his farm had belonged for approximately 100 years to the family of George Glass Jr. The 300 acres were about equally divided among mature forest, young forest and open land in different stages of growth. It was dotted with springs, streams and ponds.

Although the property was still being actively farmed when he purchased it, that came to a halt and the family began working to return it to its natural state by planting native trees and grasses.

"It's done amazingly well. Some areas were really scarred, but they are gradually healing nicely. Unfortunately, the wildflowers are not coming back, so it will never be truly natural," said Hill.

The doctor said his plan is to make the farm a wildlife sanctuary, and he's already seeing bobcats, coyotes, lots of deer and birds of every sort. Although he's not yet seen bear, he's certain he has heard them on occasion.

Hill said he tailored his easement to allow minimal activity on the land. For example, logging is limited, and he is keeping the harvest of trees to cutting non-native trees for firewood. Rather than further harm the land digging for a home and a septic system, he built his home around a remaining "shack" and has an indoor composting toilet. He maintains only a small yard and mows about 2½ miles of trails, which he uses for hiking.

"Everything else, we leave alone," he said. "The idea is to leave it alone and let it heal, to preserve it for the citizens of Virginia and to keep the land from being further exploited."

And while the land is being preserved for the state's citizens, Hill said the property remains private, and it is not open for public use. Public benefit is realized, he said, when large, contiguous parcels of land are protected from development so wild animals can have the room they need to survive and reproduce without the danger of inbreeding brought on by being confined to ever-shrinking habitat.

Although the Hills are keeping their land use to a minimum, easements can be drawn up to allow any landowner to continue using their property as they wish. For example, he said, the land can still be used to grow crops, cattle and other livestock, timber can still be harvested, and it can even be mined to a degree - the use just needs to be specified in the easement.

"The land can still be used, just not abused. I want people to know this program exists and to let them know their property has more value than exploitation. Our view is to leave as small a footprint as possible," Hill said.

By Walter Littrell. Originally published in the Kingsport Times-News, Monday, November 14, 2005. Posted with permission - Kingsport Times-News.

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Protecting a Global Hotspot of Biodiversity in Virginia:
Land trusts in southwest Virginia are working to protect
one of the nation’s treasure troves of species diversity -
while helping landowners protect their land.

By Jess Clarke

As a boy, Neal Kilgore encountered his version of a horror story during an innocent fishing trip with a buddy.

Casting their lines into the Clinch River in Wise County, Va., around 1970, the boys noticed fish floating on the surface. For as far as they could see, bass, bluegill and other species up to several feet long languished, their scaly bodies sacrificed to a chemical spill from an upstream power plant.

Neal, Karen and Konnor Kilgore on the farm they have placed under a conservation easement in Washington County, VA. Formerly used to store hay and hang tobacco, their barn now shelters the family’s garden tools and winter firewood. Neal was a founding board member of The Land Trust for Southwest Virginia

A few days later, “You could have walked across the river on dead fish,” recalls Kilgore, now of Washington County, Va.

Kilgore and others who have long mourned environmental violations of the biologically diverse Clinch and New Rivers in Southwest Virginia are taking steps to protect those and other waterways by joining people across the state who are choosing preservation over large-scale development.

Two private, non-profit organizations, the New River Land Trust, based in Blacksburg, Va., and The Land Trust for southwest Virginia, in the westernmost mountains of Virginia, are helping landowners who decide they want to conserve their property forever to do just that. The land trusts work with private landowners to develop conservation easements, voluntary legal agreements between landowners and conservation organizations that allow landowners to determine how their property can be used now and in the future. The easement then becomes a permanent part of the property deed. Most easements just restrict development, but some go further to limit logging or certain types of logging, require stream buffers to keep cattle from creeks, or promote other soil and water conservation measures.

In return, landowners receive federal tax deductions, as well as a generous state tax credit that can be sold for cash to other Virginia taxpayers. These credits, which can be substantial in some cases, allow easement donors to recoup a portion of the value of the development rights they give up when they restrict the future uses of their lands.

The Appalachian monkeyface (above), and the rough rabbitsfoot (below) are two of the endangered freshwater mussels found nowhere else in the world outside of the Clinch River region. Photos courtesy of Gary Peeples, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, www.forestryimages.org

A Hotspot of Aquatic Diversity
Representatives of the trusts are educating landowners about the importance of protecting the Clinch and New, long rivers as snaky as the mountainous roads that cross them, waterways that wiggle into and out of Virginia and other states.
The Clinch, with headwaters in Tazewell County, Va., rambles from the mountains of Southwest Virginia down to the Tennessee River.

“ There’s no place else in the world with this number of [aquatic] species in one spot,” about 40 species of mussels alone, says Steve Lindeman, a forester with The Nature Conservancy who is on the board of directors of The Land Trust for Southwest Virginia.

The Clinch is home to aquatic characters such as the Appalachian monkeyface, the shiny pigtoe, the rough rabbit’s foot and the purple bean – all federally endangered or threatened freshwater mussels.

The New River, one of the world’s oldest rivers, is one of few in the world that flows from south to north. Like the Clinch, it provides habitat for many endangered and threatened species of salamanders and mussels. With headwaters in North Carolina, the New churns through Southwest Virginia and halfway across West Virginia where it joins the Gauley to become the Kanawha River.

The New and Clinch rivers are valued partly for recreation, tourism and as municipal drinking supplies. But according to many, these rivers are not valued nearly enough - a situation the land trusts aim to address by promoting conservation easements.

Much of the damage to the New and Clinch comes from development, which causes sediment to be released into the water from road and building construction; septic systems that leach into the ground; runoff from houses and pavement that worsens flooding. Runoff and black water spills from coal mining operations are another major threat, especially to the Clinch.

Farming and extensive logging can have negative effects as well by burying crucial reproductive habitat for aquatic life in silt from the erosion that follows those activities. Cattle that use streams, in addition to contributing to erosion, can also introduce harmful bacteria.

“ You can’t save a river if you don’t keep your farmland intact,” says Bill Wasserman of Russell County, the President and founder of The Land Trust for Southwest Virginia. In recent years, he has seen farms fractured into subdivisions, leading to increasing development, as well as excessive logging of native forests. “In southwest Virginia, the rural character of the region is part of the way of life. The things I’d come to love about this region weren’t going to be there unless somebody stepped up and started to preserve some of it.”

Fortunately, Wasserman stepped up. He has a conservation easement on 500 acres of his mostly-forested property on Clinch Mountain. The community of old trees there includes poplars, oaks, maples, walnuts and buckeyes, some 4 feet in diameter.

About 280,000 acres in Virginia are already in conservation easements in connection with about 25 land trusts. Most easements are held by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a state agency for which Wasserman works that monitors the agreements. These agreements are backed by the state attorney general’s office to make sure they are followed.

Easements are “alternatives to chopping up farms or forests for a one-time commercial use,” says Lesley Howard of Blacksburg, president of the New River Land Trust. “They give people another way to conserve land for future generations.”

Howard’s trust has worked with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation to put about 7,000 acres under easement, with 40 easements under way this year. Most of the property is in Floyd, Grayson, Giles, Montgomery and Wythe counties. About three miles along the New River in Grayson County are protected, in addition to easements that preserve other rivers and tributaries of the New. The trust recently received a federal appropriation of $250,000 to buy another easement along the New

The reason local landowners are so passionate about preserving the beauty of southwest Virginia is no mystery; the Clinch Mountains region is one of the most scenic areas in America. Photo courtesy of Bill Kittrell and The Nature Conservancy.

Protecting More than Rivers
In addition to the ecologically important river frontage, the New River Land Trust also protects 1,281 acres under easement in equally important high elevation areas. With the help of the New River Land Trust and Virginia Outdoors Foundation, Mark Todd and his family put easements on their farmland and forested property on Buck Mountain in Grayson County. At an elevation of 4,670 feet, Buck Mountain, which overlooks the New River, is reportedly Virginia’s tallest privately-owned mountain.

Some of the land has been used for cattle farming since Todd’s grandfather, Bays Todd, acquired the property about 50 years ago. Todd and others hunt turkeys, deer, grouse and other game on the property, through which the Saddle Creek headwaters, a tributary of the New, run. A Christmas tree farm dots some of the acreage.

“ This is the way we want to keep the land. That way, we know that for the future, my grandchildren and on down the line, it will be there,” says Todd, a doctor who lives in Salem, Va."

The easement Todd put on his portion of the property prohibits structures other than those needed for farm use and limits the height of buildings to preserve ridge views. Cell towers are not allowed.

Cell towers are also prohibited on the 44 acres in Washington County on which Neal Kilgore put an easement with the help of the Land Trust for Southwest Virginia. The easement restricts logging, prohibits commercial buildings and the selling of lots for development and keeps cattle from streams, among other provisions. Kilgore was motivated in part by seeing uncontrolled growth elsewhere in Virginia.

More development means less land for food production to feed an increasing population, says Kilgore, who works for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. “At least I know in my heart I have set aside some agricultural land that is available for production if future generations need it,” he says.
Kilgore didn’t mind investing $2,800 on surveying, land appraisals and a lawyer’s fees to put an easement on his tract.

In addition to federal and state tax breaks, the New River Land Trust plans to give another incentive with an income-based program in Montgomery County that offers no-interest loans for the land appraisals required to get easements. Trust officials hope to expand the program to other localities.

Education and Research
Educating landowners about conservation and the importance of the New and Clinch rivers is part of the land trusts’ missions.

The Land Trust for Southwest Virginia holds barbecues for landowners, county government officials and others to discuss easements. The trust has already helped with easements on about 500 acres of forest and farmland in Lee, Scott and Washington counties, Wasserman says, and it’s one of the newest land trusts in the Southeast.

The New River Land Trust, like a number of land trusts across the country, is beginning to identify areas of high conservation value in the area they cover. According to President Leslie Howard, the New River Land Trust is working on a database to identify places on the New and elsewhere that are particularly important in conserving water quality and preserving scenic and recreational value.

Officials with both land trusts believe development and conservation can coexist. “We can allow development. We just need to plan for it, make sure it happens in the right place at the right time,” says Lindeman, of Washington County.
Another strategy for preserving land and water, which the New River trust is pursuing with a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, is helping landowners find ways to make a living from their property by farming, timbering and other activities.

Many landowners, however, already know how they want to use their land and are well educated about the value of easements and the need to protect their children’s heritage. They are contacting their local land trusts in increasing numbers every year across Virginia and neighboring states.

Neil Kilgore knew it was the right place and time to put an easement on his property as he anticipated the birth of his son, Konnor, now 2. “What kind of world do we enable children to inherit?” he asks.

He wants Konnor to inherit a Clinch River in which mussels wallow in the clean gravel they require, a Clinch River where the fish he sees are underwater - not floating on top of it.

By Jess Clarke jcpoet@bellsouth.net. Originally published in the Appalachian Voice, September, 2005.  Posted with permission from the author and Appalachian Voices, www.appvoices.org.