Seminar is Successful
More than 50 attorneys, accountants, landowners,
and others interested in land preservation, attended
a seminar held on May 16 and May 18. Jointly sponsored
by the Northern Neck Land Conservancy and the
Middle Peninsula Land Trust, the program offered
detailed information on land preservation agreements
and their benefits.
The May 16 session was held at the Glenns Campus
of the Rappahannock Community College (RCC). Mary
Helen Morgan, president of Middle Peninsula Land
Trust, served as moderator. The May 18 session,
held at RCC Warsaw campus was led by Mary Louisa
Pollard, President of the Northern Neck Land Conservancy.
Dr. Elizabeth Crowther, RCC president, welcomed
participants at both programs on behalf of the
college.
Entitled, "Land Preservation
Agreements, Requirements and Benefits for Tax
Planning: Strategies that help your land work
for you", the seminar focused on the conservation
easement, a simple legal agreement between a landowner
and a government agency or a non-profit conservation
organization which places permanent limits on
the development of the property.
Catherine Scott outlined the special characteristics
of conservation easements:
1) They are totally voluntary
2) They keep property in private ownership (and
on tax rolls)
3) They are perpetual
4) They protect a variety of landscapes, i.e.,
agricultural, forest land, historic, etc.
5) They are individual
She talked about the landowners who donate conservation
easements, “They love their land, first
and foremost. They also realize that there are
significant tax and estate benefits and, for some,
it is the only way they are able to pass their
land on to their heirs.”
Scott is Director of Land Conservation for Piedmont
Environmental Council and a member of the DC bar.
She asked, “How many things can you do in
life that are for forever?” She also described
the sense of pride found in Virginia’s Piedmont
where landowners display signs identifying their
property as being under protection of conservation
easement.
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