Donations in Honor and Memory
This past year, a number of our donors made their donations...
Conserving land, water, and open space -- forever.
Since coming of age in the 1980s, the land trust community has grown exponentially nationwide. As of 2015, the combined efforts of local, statewide, and national land trusts had conserved more than 56 million acres.
One of the drivers of these easements is the rapid development and urbanization of rural areas. Conservation easements can help farmers continue to farm while withstanding the financial pressure of urban growth and maintaining the quality of life in communities. Of the 55 counties in West Virginia 14 of them have conservation easements totaling 164 easements as of 2014. The Eastern Panhandle Counties (Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan) have a total of 96 easements or 59% of the easements in the state. The Land Trust holds or co-holds 49 of them, covering 4,800 acres.
If you are a landowner, and you desire to protect you land and receive potential tax benefits, you may be ready to take the next step. You may:
Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle P.O. Box 2240 Martinsburg, WV 25402 or Contact us via email here.
Because an easement protects the land in perpetuity, all future landowners are bound to the restrictions. The easement is created in the form of a deed. This Deed of Conservation Easement is recorded in the county land records. Because it is recorded with the property deed records, future landowners are put on notice of the land protections that have been recorded.
Frank and Sylvia Citizen own 100 acres, which they enjoy and do not want to see developed. The land already has one house and some outbuildings. They consider a conservation easement permitting one or two additional houses. An appraisal establishes that the difference in the value of the property when it can be developed and when it cannot is $5000 per acre, or $500,000 for the entire 100 acres. (The amount would have been less had they decided on reserving are
In either case, the land trust or the FPB prepares a baseline documentation report that documents the features of the property and establishes an area around the house where additional residential-related structures or farm outbuildings can be constructed. The couple obtains an agreement from their bank to subordinate the existing mortgage on the property to the conservation easement and negotiates the details of the conservation easement. After the easement is closed and recorded, if they have not received full payment from the FPB/NRCS, Frank and Sylvia obtain an updated appraisal to use for the tax deduction for the year in which the easement was closed, and they can carry the balance of the deduction forward to future years.
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