Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 4 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
By the Piedmont
Environmental Council
Special to The Rappahannock News
In a dramatic turnaround, the federal government has expanded the tax incentives for private land conservation, making these incentives more useful to people who make their living off their land and to people with low or moderate incomes.
Early in 2005, a Congressional committee recommended slashing these incentives, a misstep that would have dealt a devastating blow to land conservation across the country. “This remarkable turnaround is the result of hard work on the part of land trusts across the country to demonstrate to Congress the importance of private land conservation and also to guarantee that the public’s investment will be well placed,” says Catherine Scotf, the Piedmont Environmental Council’s Director of Land Conservation. “We consider this an overwhelmingly positive result.”
When a landowner donates a conservation easement on a given property, he or she permanently limits development, protecting the land forever. Conservation easements preserve water quality, productive farmland, wildlife habitat, historic resources, scenic views, and opportunities for tourism. Because of these and other public benefits, the federal government considers the value of the donated easement a taxdeductible gift. The state of Virginia also supports conservation through the Virginia Land Preservation Tax Credit, one of the most successful conservation incentives in the country.
These incentives have helped make it possible for landowners to voluntarily protect more than 242,000 acres in the northern Piedmont of Virginia, including more
93.1%