Response to Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument for Statutory Recognition of Options to Purchase Conservation Easements
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
| Author |
8-2017 NEWS & ANALYSIS 47 ELR 10663
The Land Trust for Tennessee (La nd Trust) was
founded in 1999, a s a statewide land conservation
organization. Our bread a nd butter is the donated
conservation easement, which diers from purchased ease-
ments whereby owners are compensated for extinguishing
some development rights on their property. ere is a sig-
nicant federal tax deduction for donated easements and
in some cases there are st ate deductions as well, but not in
Tennessee. e largest number of Land Trust projects is in
Middle Tennessee—particularly in Williamson County,
which was Nashville’s farmland, and also in Davidson
County—but the greatest acreage is in a place that has been
identied in Tennessee as a place that is particularly resil-
ient to climate change, the South Cumberlands.
As Profs. Federico Cheever and Jessica Owley recognize,
the Land Trust takes into account conservation purposes,
including protecting prime agricultural soils, wildlife habi-
tat, rare and endangered species, open-space for recreation,
and scenic and historic view sheds. Over the past 17 years,
the Land Trust has protected nearly 119,000 acres across
the state. Last year was a record year—the Land Trust pro-
tected nearly 19,000 acres; whereas, the year before we pro-
tected about 6,000 acres. Due to development pressures,
people are really jumping on the bandwagon and feeling
the urgency to protect land.
ere a re not a lot of conservation organizations t hat
have used options to purchase conservation easements.
e L and Trust has used options to acquire land in fee,
but for a very short period of time. For example, the La nd
Trust works with the Department of Defense around Fort
Campbell through the Army Compatible Use Buer Pro-
gram. In some cases, the Land Trust has worked with pri-
vate land owners around the base and purchased options as
a way to be sure that the Land Trust was investing its time
and money wisely. Later the Land Trust did move forward
with the purchase of an easement, using monies from the
Department of Defense.
e authors’ concept of options is quite fascinating a s
it relates to climate change. In Tennessee, there already
are changes in the habitat of some freshwater sh which
are thriving in some places but not doing as well in others
because of water temperature. For the Land Trust, priori-
tizing work related to climate change is a signicant chal-
lenge. For a lot of land trusts it would be a big leap to really
gure out how to prioritize work related to climate change
and how to best use the options tool. It’s a big thing to
think about, but it’s a very good thing to think about.
Here are a few points about options to consider. e rst
issue is transferability of an option from one generation to
the next. Does the option stay in one family or one owner
to the next if there is a sale involved? is would be impor-
tant to nail down, because with a 50-year timeline or 100-
year timeline that kind of transferability is key question.
Second, if an orga nization is investing philanthropic
dollars, people expect—even if it is a long-term horizon—
that an organization is going to do what it say it is going to
do with their money. Donor intent is something that ethi-
cal nonprots really hold dear, and that would be a concern
of the Land Trust as well. For example, if an organization
spends $5,000 of somebody’s money to acquire an option
in 2018 and 50 years later it does not exercise that option,
it would be a rare donor who would say, “Yes, that’s an okay
thing for you to do.” We have some of them in Nashville
and in Tennessee, but they are rare.
e urgency issue is a nother concern related to donors.
Donors like to see a n immediate return on their invest-
ment. For e xample, t he Land Trust is about to have two
big celebrations with the Tennessee Department of Envi-
C O M M E N T
Response to Enhancing Conservation
Options: An Argument for Statutory
Recognition of Options to Purchase
Conservation Easements
by Liz McLaurin
Liz McLaurin is the president and CEO of e Land Trust for Tennessee. Notable among her projects for
e Land Trust is her leadership in the revitalization of the 65-acre Glen Leven farm in Nashville.
is Comment is based on a transcript of a panel discussion on
Monday, March 13, 2017, at Vanderbilt University Law School in
Nashville, Tennessee.
Copyright © 2017 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.
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