News Room
Beaver pond on the Brooks McCandlish/Janet Sillars easement in Bradford.
Friends Conserve 476 Acres in Bradford
Friends often share some values and life goals, but it is uncommon when friendship leads to simultaneous conservation of important land from development. This spring, Brooks McCandlish, his wife Janet Sillars and their good friend and neighbor Meg Fearnley donated two conservation easements conserving 476 acres in Bradford, to the Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust, with the hope of setting an example for their neighbors.
Conservation commitment and love for the land runs deep among these friends! Brooks is a licensed forester, tree farm inspector and conservation commission member, Janet is a gardener, shepherd and sheep dog trainer, and Meg is a conservation commission member and Bradford’s librarian.
Waterfall on the Fearnley easement
Their lands lie at the headwaters of the Hoyt Brook and West Branch Brook watersheds, both properties playing host to the cyclical antics of beavers. Brooks and Janet now have a lush green meadow where a beaver pond held water just a few years ago. Meg coexists with the beavers who regularly flood her driveway. In both instances, the beavers’ activities create important wildlife habitat for a wide range of species dependent on one or another of the wetlands created by this flat tailed builder of dams. Below Meg’s beaver dam are a series of small but beautiful waterfalls tumbling over smoothed granite boulders and framed by graceful hardwood trunks and branches.
Brooks manages both properties for a variety of wood products, with a focus on improving the quality of the trees left after the harvest. Tall straight pine and wide trunked hardwoods share these woods with pine saplings released from the shade of overstory trees and hardwoods basking in the sunlight of recent thinnings.
Heritage Jacob's sheep on the Kisakinari easement.
Multi-horned heritage Jacob’s sheep live on both properties. Brooks and Janet’s pastures are home to as many as 60 sheep and lambs each year, raised for wool and meat. Special ewes, retired from breeding, go to Meg’s, where they share barn and pasture with a retired horse.
It is fitting that these friends, whose land shares wild and domestic animals and the roots of important Bradford brooks, chose to conserve their lands at the same time – for their sheep, local beavers, water quality and to allow the continued management of the forest. These newly conserved properties of forest, pasture and beaver meadows lie just east of the Pillsbury - Sunapee highlands, and join the largest block of conserved land in southern New Hampshire – now over 21,000 acres with the addition of these two properties.
Brooks says “I’m very grateful that Ausbon Sargent is willing and able to accept the responsibility to monitor and enforce our easements, to ensure the land continues to be open as forest and/or farmland into the future.” He, Janet and Meg have given a tremendous gift to the public and to future generations.
Join the Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust, and the easement donors for a field trip at the Kisakinari and Fearnley Easements on Thursday, September 1. For more details, please go to http://www.ausbonsargent.org/calendar.
(Please check our News/Newsletter section of this web site in early July to read two articles on these Bradford easements in our bi-annual newsletter Chatter.)
Ausbon Sargent Earns National Accreditation Recognition:
The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust is pleased to announce that it has been awarded accreditation by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance. Accredited land trusts are able to display a seal indicating to the public that they meet national standards for excellence and that the accredited land trust has undergone an extensive, external review of the governance and management of its organization and the systems and policies it uses to protect lands forever. Ausbon Sargent is a stronger organization today having gone through the rigorous accreditation program. Less that 5% of land trusts across the country have been awarded accreditation since the fall of 2008. Ausbon Sargent is one of only two land trusts in New Hampshire that has achieved this distinction in land conservation. We are very proud of this achievement!
The Accreditation commission reviewed our financial records, tax returns, baseline documentation reports for all properties, property management plans, Monitoring reports, record retention policy and conflict of interest policy including examples of how its been applied.
The Ausbon Sargent Board of Trustees invested 3 years of preparation to be certain that our policies and procedures were in full compliance before authorizing the staff to begin the initial application process which involved over 400 hours of staff time. The follow-up questions resulting from the commissions review required an additional 200 hours of staff time.
If you visit the Land Trust Alliance Accreditation web site at http://www.landtrustalliance.org/learning/accreditation/2008-accreditation-indicator-practices you will see why we needed to invest so many staff hours to secure accreditation.
We believe receiving the LTA accreditation assures both our easement and financial donors of our integrity, professionalism and our capacity to successfully execute our mission to preserve the rural landscape of the Mt. Kearsarge/Lake Sunapee region
“Forest Notes” Prints Article on Ausbon Sargent / The Nature Conservancy Partnership on Courser Lands:
Tax Incentive Associated with Conservation Easement Donations
While Ausbon Sargent members understand and enjoy the public benefit of conserved land, some do not fully comprehend the tax benefit to donors of conservation easements that meet IRS requirements. We sometimes get the question “How does it work?” Recent changes enacted by congress have increased the tax benefit, making this a good time to give everyone an update and provide a basic understanding of the tax implication associated with a conservation easement.
To qualify for a federal income tax deduction, the easement must achieve certain conservation purposes and the conservation easement donor is required to obtain a fair market value appraisal of the property before and after restriction. The difference is the value of the conservation easement. The value of the conservation easement can be used to reduce the donor’s adjusted gross income (AGI) thereby reducing his or her income tax liability.
The 2006 Pension Reform bill, made certain changes to the federal income tax available for conservation easement donations through December 31, 2007, and the 2008 Farm Bill extends those changes through December 2009. These temporary changes were again extended through the 2010 Tax Relief Act. These temporary changes modify the conservation tax incentives which have been in place for 26 years.
During calendar year 2010 – 2011, the law:
- Raised the deduction a landowner can take for the value of the conservation easement from 30% of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in any year to 50%;
- Allowed farmers and ranchers to deduct the value of the conservation easement from up to 100% of AGI in any year; and
- Extended the carry forward period for a donor to take tax deductions for the value of the conservation easement from 5 to 15 years.
The enhanced easement incentive will expire December 31, 2011. If Congress fails to extend the incentive past 2011, conservation easement donations are still deductible, but deductions would be limited to 30% of the donor's adjusted gross income with a 5-year carry-over. C-corporations deductions will be limited to 10% of their AGI and, under a separate expired provision; S-corporation shareholder deductions are limited to their basis in the donated property. The 2006 appraisal rules do not expire.
This is a brief review of the tax treatment of the donation of conservation easements. To fully understand the tax implications you should consult with a financial advisor and/or an attorney.