Dear , We’re listening! I would like to thank the many land trusts that have offered suggestions for how to improve the accreditation program. In response to your feedback, changes to the accreditation process released today will make it more accessible for land trusts of all sizes. In fact, the changes adopted by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission will reduce by 40% the questions and attachments required to complete the application. This maintains the rigor of the program while reducing the reporting burden on land trusts and improving the efficiency of the accreditation process.   Accreditation helps to preserve public trust and publicly recognizes a land trust’s ability to protect important natural places and working lands forever. To date, 82 land trusts have become accredited and another 49 have registered or applied. For those interested, registration for 2010 is now open. Please see the following article below to learn more about the revised application process.   Rand Wentworth President, Land Trust Alliance

ACCREDITATION

Accreditation Program Changes Announced Based on feedback the Land Trust Accreditation Commission received from land trusts that have been through the program, commissioner experience from reviewing more than 100 applications and an outside review, the accreditation process is changing to be more efficient for applicants and the Commission. As part of this, the Alliance made the decision to reduce the number of practices sampled from Land Trust Standards and Practices for accreditation, from 37 to 26. This change will maintain the rigor of the program while reducing the time applicants spend completing the application. It will also enable the Commission to efficiently manage an increasing volume of applications. The Commission released revised application materials today that are on their website. Many of the pre-application and application questions and attachments have been combined or reorganized in order to reduce redundancy while retaining the substance of the indicator practices that were removed from the list. The amount of questions and attachments has been reduced by nearly 40%, with attached statements replacing many of the previous questions. A graphic shows how previously overlapping information is now managed under the revised set of indicator practices. Through these changes and revised materials, the Commission is reducing the redundancy in the application noted by previous applicants while maintaining the rigor of the program. The changes to the indicator practices will go into effect on March 31, 2010. Read more. See Frequently Asked Questions about the new changes to the accreditation process. Back to Top

POLICY

Enhanced Easement Incentive and Estate Tax Expire! The U.S. Senate failed to act on the package of tax “extenders” passed by the House, thus the enhanced tax deduction for conservation easement donations expired December 31st. The estate tax has also gone to zero, but is scheduled to return in 2011 with pre-2001 rules. The Congress may act soon to reinstate either or both – and could make them retroactive to January 1st. Read on to see how current law affects conservation donations and learn how you can help enact our bills to make the enhanced incentive permanent and create new estate tax incentives in 2010. More

Taxpayers Win Again in Tax Court Substantiation Case Tax season is underway. Remember to send contemporaneous written acknowledgement letters for all gifts of $250 or more, including gifts of land and easements. The Tax Court ruled that a taxpayer claiming a bargain sale of real property to an Ohio state agency was entitled to the deduction despite failing to comply strictly with the appraisal substantiation regulations. This case suggests that substantial compliance through other documentation may be adequate, but land trusts shouldn’t risk putting their donors through an audit to find out. More Back to Top

RALLY

Got Conservation Knowledge? It’s time for Rally 2010: The National Land Conservation Conference’s Call for Presentations!  Some are big, and some are small, but we need to teach them all; Some are on the east coast, some are on the west, but we know you can teach land trusts best! If you’re an expert instructor on land conservation issues or have a unique land trust experience to share, submit a proposal today to be part of the Rally 2010 faculty. New this year: A limited number of slots are available for workshops or seminars to be held in a technology-enabled classroom with a computer for each participant. View all workshop tracks and the Call for Presentations form. Back to Top

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change and Wildland Management The USDA Forest Service recently released an interactive short course on addressing climate change in wildland management. Titled “Adapting to Climate Change: A Short Course for Land Managers,” the course is available as a DVD or online at the Climate Change Resource Center. The site also has other information and tools to help land managers respond to climate change. The self-paced course summarizes information to help resource managers plan for future climate-driven uncertainties. It is organized around three themes: climate variability, ecological responses, and management responses.

Climate Change and Land Protection Planning - Comments Sought On EPA Report EPA is seeking comments by February 1, 2010 on a draft document titled, ‘‘An Assessment of Decision-Making Processes: The Feasibility of Incorporating Climate Change Information into Land Protection Planning.’’ The report is a review of decision-making processes of selected land protection programs, some of which involve land trusts. The goal is to assess the feasibility of incorporating information on impacts of climate change into program decisions. The report identifies strategies that might be useful for incorporating climate change into decision-making and suggests land protection may become even more important to ameliorate climate change impacts on watersheds, wildlife and other resources. More Back to Top

CONSERVATION DEFENSE

Major Progress Reported on the Proposed Insurance Program! In only six months, 201 land trusts from 40 states have committed 67% of the conservation easements and fee land parcels needed to reach the 12,000 commitments to make the proposed conservation defense insurance program feasible. You can see progress to the 12,000 commitments on the Tree-mometer to the right. Or if you want to see how your state stacks up, see the map of land trust commitments as a percentage of total units by state. Join now and keep the momentum going!

Insurance Conference Call Just Announced: Please join us for an informational conference call on the proposed conservation defense insurance program on February 23rd.  Alliance staff will be there to answer any questions or concerns you have. Date: 2/23/2010 Time: 1:00 PM PT ** 2:00 PM MT ** 3:00 PM CT ** 4:00 PM ET Phone Number: 800-803-0998 Participant Passcode: 559933# Please feel free to send questions prior to the call to Leslie Ratley-Beach, Conservation Defense Director, at lrbeach@lta.org or call her at 802-262-6051.

Maryland Wins Farmland Preservation Lawsuit Protecting Integrity of Program Maryland’s highest court decided in favor of the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation in a case that could have undermined the intent of the state land preservation program and devalued the $500 million public investment in the preservation of productive Maryland farmland. The court construed the easement based on the “clear language” of the instrument only. In its discussion the court cited cases that applied construction principles from both contract law and real property law. The court awarded costs to the preservation foundation. More Back to Top

community news

New Book by Land Trust Community Member Long-time land trust supporter and former Alliance board member Sam Pryor III recently wrote a book about his father, an impressive figure in the 20th Century involved in politics, aviation, prize fighting and crime fighting, among other things. The author was chairman of the Westchester Land Trust and is currently chairman of the Open Space Committee. You can find a copy of his 310-page book, “Make it Happen: The Fascinating Life of Sam Pryor, Jr.” on Amazon.com. Back to Top

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IN THIS ISSUE

>> Accreditation Program Changes Announced >> Enhanced Easement Incentive and Estate Tax Expire! >> Taxpayers Win Again in Tax Court Substantiation Case >> Got Conservation Knowledge? Rally: Call For Presentations >> Climate Change and Wildland Management >> Comments Sought On New Report On Incorporating Climate Change Into Land Protection Planning >> Major Progress Reported on the Proposed Insurance Program >> Insurance Conference Call >> Maryland Wins Farmland Preservation Lawsuit Protecting Integrity of Program >> New Book by Land Trust Community Member

UPCOMING EVENTS Rally 2010: The National Land Conservation Conference October 2 - 5 | Hartford, CT >>Save the Date Online Trainings Strategies for Building and Sustaining Effective Boards: 1/27/10. MORE>> Conservation Easement Monitoring: 2/3/10. MORE>> Board Roles and Lines of Authority: 2/24/09. MORE>> Building and Managing Effective Board Structures and Committees: 3/3/10. MORE>> Alliance Regional Conferences Southeast: March 17-19 GREENVILLE, SC>> Midwest: April 15-17 COLUMBUS, OH>> Northwest: May 13-15 WALLA WALLA, WA>> EVENTS CALENDAR >>