Download or read book An Empirical Study of Modification and Termination of Conservation Easements written by Gerald Korngold and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acquisition of conservation easements by nonprofit organizations (“NPOs”) over the past twenty-five years has revolutionized the preservation of American land. Recently, however, legislatures, courts, practitioners, and commentators have debated whether and how conservation easements should be modified and even terminated. The discussion has almost always been on a theoretical level without empirical grounding and has sometimes generated much heat but little light. The discussion has lacked the necessary empirical context to allow legislatures and courts to thoughtfully develop resolutions to these issues free from sloganeering and posturing. This article provides and analyzes a previously uncollected dataset that offers guidance on the appropriate rules of law for conservation easement modification. It examines policy goals in light of the data to suggest various modification rules that would be more effective than current practice. The dataset represents a significant sample of easement modifications that have been made during a six year period (2008-2013) and indicates several findings: first, modifications have actually been taking place, despite claims that conservation easements are “perpetual,” apparently indicating that NPOs need flexibility in at least some areas; most of the changes have been “minor” and have been either conservation neutral or conservation positive, though one would expect pressure for more significant alterations over time due to shifts in the environment and human needs; there is a range of types and degree of modifications to this point, suggesting that there should be a spectrum of procedural and substantive requirements for the different varieties of modifications; and, a mandate for a stand-alone, state registry of conservation easements and modifications would allow for improved policymaking. The article suggests that a doctrine that requires different procedures and substantive rules for various categories of modifications -- a sliding scale -- may yield the best, policy-based results. The work also identifies and analyzes existing doctrines -- federal tax law, specific state statutes, charitable trust doctrine, standing rules, and director liability -- that would need to be altered or clarified to adopt effective modification rules.

Download or read book Modification and Termination of Conservation Easements written by Gerald Korngold and published by Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Protecting the Land written by Julie Ann Gustanski and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a property owner and a conservation organization, generally a private nonprofit land trust, that restricts the type and amount of development that can be undertaken on that property. Conservation easements protect land for future generations while allowing owners to retain property rights, at the same time providing them with significant tax benefits. Conservation easements are among the fastest growing methods of land preservation in the United States today. Protecting the Land provides a thoughtful examination of land trusts and how they function, and a comprehensive look at the past and future of conservation easements. The book: provides a geographical and historical overview of the role of conservation easements analyzes relevant legislation and its role in achieving community conservation goals examines innovative ways in which conservation easements have been used around the country considers the links between social and economic values and land conservation Contributors, including noted tax attorney and land preservation expert Stephen Small, Colorado's leading land preservation attorney Bill Silberstein, and Maine Coast Heritage Trust's general counsel Karin Marchetti, describe and analyze the present status of easement law. Sharing their unique perspectives, experts including author and professor of geography Jack Wright, Dennis Collins of the Wildlands Conservancy, and Chuck Roe of the Conservation Trust of North Carolina offer case studies that demonstrate the flexibility and diversity of conservation easements. Protecting the Land offers a valuable overview of the history and use of conservation easements and the evolution of easement-enabling legislation for professionals and citizens working with local and national land trusts, legal advisors, planners, public officials, natural resource mangers, policymakers, and students of planning and conservation.

Download or read book An Introduction to Conservation Easements in the United States written by Federico Cheever and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of a conservation easement - restrictions on the development and use of land designed to protect the land's conservation or historic values - can be relatively easily understood. More significant and more challenging is the complex body of state and federal laws that shapes the creation, funding, tax treatment, enforcement, modification, and termination of conservation easements. The explosion in the number of conservation easements over the past four decades has made them one of the most popular land protection mechanisms in the United States. The National Conservation Easement Database estimates that the total number of acres encumbered by conservation easements exceeds 40 million.Because conservation easements are both novel and ubiquitous, understanding how they actual work is essential for practicing lawyers, policymakers, land trust professionals, and students of conservation. This article provides a “quick tour” through some of the most important aspects of the developing mosaic of conservation easement law. It gives the reader a sense of the complex inter-jurisdictional dynamics that shape conservation transactions and disputes about conservation easements. Professors of property law, environmental law, tax law, and environmental studies who wish to cover conservation easements in the context of a more general course can use the article to provide their students with a broad but comprehensive overview of the relevant legal and policy issues.

Download or read book Rethinking the Perpetual Nature of Conservation Easements written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the use of perpetual conservation easements as a land protection tool has grown, so have concerns regarding whether, when, and how such easements may be modified or terminated to respond to changed conditions. This Article argues that the charitable trust doctrine of cy pres should apply to donated conservation easements and, if interpreted as suggested, can provide a principled means of modifying or extinguishing easements that have ceased to provide public benefits sufficient to justify their continued enforcement (or have even arguably become detrimental to the public). The Article argues that a landowner should be viewed as striking the following "cy pres bargain" with the public upon the donation of an easement - the landowner should be permitted to exercise dead hand control over the use of the property encumbered by the easement, but only so long as the easement continues to provide benefits to the public sufficient to justify its enforcement. If, due to changed conditions, the continued protection of the encumbered land for the conservation purposes specified in the easement deed becomes "impossible or impracticable," a court should apply the doctrine of cy pres to restore the appropriate balance between the landowner's desire to exercise dead hand control, and society's interest in ensuring that charitable assets continue to provide benefits to the public. In cases where the donor evidenced a particularly strong personal attachment to the encumbered land and the continued protection of that land for a different conservation purpose is feasible, a court could apply the doctrine of cy pres to modify the easement to change its conservation purpose while continuing to protect the underlying land. Alternatively, in cases where the donor did not evidence a particularly strong personal attachment to the encumbered land, or where the continued protection of that land for a different conservation purpose is not feasible, a court could apply the doctrine of cy pres to extinguish the easement, authorize the sale of the unencumbered land, and direct that the proceeds attributable to the easement be used to accomplish the donor's specified conservation purposes in another location.

Download or read book In Defense of Conservation Easements written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This article critiques the arguments offered in favor of treating donated conservation easements as unrestricted charitable gifts (that is, as fungible or liquid assets in the hands of their government or land trust holders). It also discusses the practical and potential constitutional problems associated with proposals to change state law to permit government entities and land trusts to sell, trade, release, extinguish, or otherwise terminate the conservation easements they hold outside of judicial cy pres proceedings. Johnson County, Wyoming's, improper termination of a perpetual conservation easement, which was challenged in Hicks v. Dowd and Salzburg v. Dowd, provides the backdrop for the discussion.

Download or read book Globalizing Conservation Easements written by Gerald Korngold and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past thirty years nonprofit organizations have revolutionized open space and habitat conservation in the United States through the use of conservation easements. Pursuant to legislation, nonprofits may now acquire and hold perpetual restrictions that prevent alteration of the subject land's natural and ecological features. These rights can be held “in gross,” with the result that the nonprofit need not own land near the restricted property and can be based in a distant location. As a result of this success, proponents in more recent years have advocated the export of “conservation easements” from the United States to other countries. A vehicle like a conservation easement and having some or perhaps all of its attributes could be employed in other countries to achieve various local and national conservation goals. My thesis, however, is that while conservation easements could be a useful tool for preservation of land outside of the U.S., they may not be the most effective or suitable framework to advance conservation in all countries. Rather than pushing for adoption of an American style “conservation easement” elsewhere, other countries and American (and global) advocates of conservation devices should engage in a process to determine a given country's appropriate conservation toolbox. That process should be free of American legal and conservation jargon and without a predisposition for U.S. legal structures, values, and policy choices. Each country must determine on its own whether private conservation restrictions meet its economic, social, and political realities and aspirations (many of which are quite different than the American experience reflected in American conservation easements) and what attributes the device should have on key issues such as duration, in gross enforcement, role of government, etc. These national and local goals can then be given life by finding an appropriate legal structure, ideally consistent with the country's own jurisprudence and system. This article will provide a framework of the major policy and legal issues that could, and in my view should, inform a country's decision to adopt private conservation restrictions. These include considerations of cost, efficiency, preference for private vs. governmental actors, the benefits and costs of perpetual limits on land, public regulation of land as an alternative, the specter of neocolonialism in environmental controls, the nature and capacity of the country's nonprofit sector, and the local legal system. Finally, the learning about conservation restrictions should be a two-way street, not just the export of American methods: the views of some other countries about governmental involvement in private conservation may teach valuable lessons to American jurisdictions about the need for an increased role of government and the public in certain aspects of the selection, modification, and termination of a some conservation easements.

Download or read book Conservation Easements and the Development of New Energies written by Gerald Korngold and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conservation easements have revolutionized land preservation during the past thirty years by permitting nonprofit organizations and governments to hold rights that prevent fee owners from altering the natural and ecological features of their land. There has also been an increase over recent years in the development of new energies, both renewables (solar and wind) and carbon-based (oil and gas) through the use of hydrofracturing combined with horizontal drilling (“fracking”). Questions have begun to emerge whether and how these two major directions -- conservation easements and new energy development -- are compatible, yielding a variety of reactions and answers. There have been some indications of conflicts coming to the fore such as a few decided cases involving fracking on conservation easement land, reports of differing views among conservation organizations about drilling on easement property; and community debate about siting wind turbines on easement land. This article examines the tension between conservation easements and new energy trends. Specifically, the article explores whether new energy creation can take place on a property that is subject to a conservation easement in light of the parties' express agreement and argues for specific interpretative devices that will best find the parties' intention, while respecting public policy considerations, when that intention is not made clear in the writing. It also analyzes the effect of the Internal Revenue Code and how federal deductibility has driven structuring of transactions and perhaps state policy goals. The article then examines whether a conservation easement subsequently can be amended by the fee owner and easement holder to permit new energy development and who must participate in this process. The article suggests that the rules concerning modification and termination need to be clarified. The current confusion potentially frustrates environmentally rational decisions and the vindication of other public policies. Finally, the article explores non-consensual alterations to conservation easements -- by judicial action or eminent domain proceedings -- that would permit new energy activities on the land and concludes that they are of limited application. Throughout, the article examines the issue of conservation easements and new energies by juxtaposing “environmentally friendly” renewables and “environmentally threatening” fracking in order to provide a deeper inquiry into the question and to force the various players to search for a result with fewer predispositions about preferred outcomes.

Download or read book Internal Revenue Code Section 170 h written by Nancy A. McLaughlin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Article is the first of two companion articles that (i) analyze the requirements in Internal Revenue Code section 170(h) that a deductible conservation easement be “granted in perpetuity” and its conservation purpose be “protected in perpetuity” and (ii) compare those requirements to state law provisions addressing the transfer, modification, or termination of conservation easements. This first Article discusses the historical development of the federal charitable income tax deduction for conservation easement donations, the legislative history of section 170(h), and the Treasury Regulations interpreting that section. It explains that section 170(h) and the Treasury Regulations contain a complex web of requirements intended to ensure that a federal subsidy is provided only with respect to conservation easements that permanently protect unique or otherwise significant properties. Such requirements are also intended to ensure that, in the unlikely event changed conditions make continued use of the subject property for conservation or historic preservation purposes impossible or impractical and the easement is extinguished in a state court proceeding, the holder will receive proceeds and use those proceeds to replace the lost conservation or historic values on behalf of the public. The companion article, which will be published in the Winter 2010 edition of the Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Journal, surveys the over one hundred statutes extant in the fifty states and the District of Columbia that authorize the creation or acquisition of conservation easements. That article explains that such statutes contain widely divergent transfer, modification, and termination provisions that were not, for the most part, crafted with an eye toward complying with federal tax law perpetuity requirements. The author concludes that landowners wishing to take advantage of the federal tax incentives offered for conservation easement donations should be required to draft their easements and otherwise structure their donations to satisfy the perpetuity requirements imposed under federal tax law, and any additional conditions or restrictions on the transfer, modification, or termination of conservation easements imposed under state law should also apply, and should provide an added layer of protection of the public interest and investment in such gifts.

Download or read book Cases and Text on Property written by Susan F. French and published by Aspen Publishing. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 1282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This completely revised and streamlined Seventh Edition of Cases and Text on Property by Susan Fletcher French and Gerald Korngold is smart, compact, and thoughtful. The carefully selected and edited cases and problems give students what they need to learn about Property law in the 21st Century. In addition to ample coverage of traditional Property subjects, the text includes substantial coverage of intellectual property, modern servitudes law, common interest communities, and constitutional limits on governmental power to acquire and regulate property. New to the Seventh Edition: A reorganization of Chapter 4 (Property Rights in Creative Works) to begin with copyright, with notes on the Google and TVEyes cases, and an important new case on patent exhaustion, Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark Int’l, Inc. Important new cases Marbar, Inc. v. Katz; Craig Wrecking Co. v. S.G. Loewendick & Sons, Inc.; Vallely Investments, L.P. v. Bancamerica Commercial Corp; Sparks v. Fidelity Nat’l Title Ins. Co.; and Coons v. Carstensen A new subsection in Chapter 13 (The Takings Clause) that highlights coverage of the public trust doctrine with two new Supreme Court cases, Murr v. Wisconsin and Horne v. Dep’t of Agriculture The authors have continued to revise and streamline the casebook without adding additional pages to this new edition. Professors and students will benefit from: Traditional cases-and-notes pedagogy with integrated problems Introductory chapters that put contemporary property law in historical context A casebook renowned for its absorbing text and teachable cases that many users have stayed with for the entire span of their careers A casebook well-suited for a 4-unit Property course, but also with sufficient material that it can readily be adapted for a 5- or 6-unit course Teaching materials include: A comprehensive Teacher’s Manual with brief suggestions for teaching every case, answers to questions asked in the notes, and maps and diagrams to explain difficult cases and problems The purchase of this Kindle edition does not entitle you to receive access to the online e-book, practice questions from your favorite study aids, and outline tool available through CasebookConnect.

Download or read book Conservation Covenants written by Great Britain. Law Commission and published by Stationery Office/Tso. This book was released on 2014 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this report, the Law Commission make recommendations for the introduction of a new statutory scheme of conservation covenants in England and Wales. The recommendations to introduce such a scheme would create a new legal tool, enabling landowners to protect land in order to conserve and restore our natural and built environment. Conservation covenants would allow landowners voluntarily to create binding obligations on their own land to meet a conservation objective, such as preserving woodland, cultivating a particular species of plant or protecting a habitat for an animal, or farming land in a certain way. The proposed statutory scheme would give individual landowners the opportunity, using private agreements, to contribute to conservation efforts being made across England and Wales. The scheme will create a versatile, simple and cost-effective legal tool capable of: unlocking currently missed conservation opportunities by overcoming the legal difficulties faced when creating binding obligations; facilitating better ways to deliver existing conservation objectives; and providing assurance of long-term conservation benefits. The report includes a draft Conservation Covenants Bill, which would introduce the conservation covenant scheme into the law of England and Wales.

Download or read book Options to Improve Tax Compliance and Reform Tax Expenditures written by United States. Congress. Joint Committee on Taxation and published by Joint Committee on Taxation. This book was released on 2005 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes proposals to to reduce the size of the Federal tax gap by curtaling tax shelters, closing unintended loopholes, addressing other areas of noncompliance with current tax law, and reforming certain areas of tax expenditures.

Download or read book The Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements written by Stephen J. Small and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Fiduciary Law written by Tamar Frankel and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Fiduciary Law, Tamar Frankel examines the structure, principles, themes, and objectives of fiduciary law. Fiduciaries, which include corporate managers, money managers, lawyers, and physicians among others, are entrusted with money or power. Frankel explains how fiduciary law is designed to offer protection from abuse of this method of safekeeping. She deals with fiduciaries in general, and identifies situations in which fiduciary law falls short of offering protection. Frankel analyzes fiduciary debates, and argues that greater preventive measures are required. She offers guidelines for determining the boundaries and substance of fiduciary law, and discusses how failure to enforce fiduciary law can contribute to failing financial and economic systems. Frankel offers ideas and explanations for the courts, regulators, and legislatures, as well as the fiduciaries and entrustors. She argues for strong legal protection against abuse of entrustment as a means of encouraging fiduciary services in society. Fiduciary Law can help lawyers and policy makers designing the future law and the systems that it protects.

Download or read book Wildlife Science written by Timothy E. Fulbright and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2007-06-20 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciously or not, wildlife managers generally act from a theoretical basis, although they may not be fully versed in the details or ramifications of that theory. In practice, the predictions of the practitioners sometimes prove more accurate than those of the theoreticians. Practitioners and theoreticians need to work together, but this proves di

Download or read book Circular No A 11 written by Omb and published by . This book was released on 2019-06-29 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The June 2019 OMB Circular No. A-11 provides guidance on preparing the FY 2021 Budget and instructions on budget execution. Released in June 2019, it's printed in two volumes. This is Volume I. Your budget submission to OMB should build on the President's commitment to advance the vision of a Federal Government that spends taxpayer dollars more efficiently and effectively and to provide necessary services in support of key National priorities while reducing deficits. OMB looks forward to working closely with you in the coming months to develop a budget request that supports the President's vision. Most of the changes in this update are technical revisions and clarifications, and the policy requirements are largely unchanged. The summary of changes to the Circular highlights the changes made since last year. This Circular supersedes all previous versions. VOLUME I Part 1-General Information Part 2-Preparation and Submission of Budget Estimates Part 3-Selected Actions Following Transmittal of The Budget Part 4-Instructions on Budget Execution VOLUME II Part 5-Federal Credit Part 6-The Federal Performance Framework for Improving Program and Service Delivery Part7-Appendices Why buy a book you can download for free? We print the paperback book so you don't have to. First you gotta find a good clean (legible) copy and make sure it's the latest version (not always easy). Some documents found on the web are missing some pages or the image quality is so poor, they are difficult to read. If you find a good copy, you could print it using a network printer you share with 100 other people (typically its either out of paper or toner). If it's just a 10-page document, no problem, but if it's 250-pages, you will need to punch 3 holes in all those pages and put it in a 3-ring binder. Takes at least an hour. It's much more cost-effective to just order the bound paperback from Amazon.com This book includes original commentary which is copyright material. Note that government documents are in the public domain. We print these paperbacks as a service so you don't have to. The books are compact, tightly-bound paperback, full-size (8 1/2 by 11 inches), with large text and glossy covers. 4th Watch Publishing Co. is a HUBZONE SDVOSB. https: //usgovpub.com

Download or read book Conservation Catalysts written by James N. Levitt and published by Lincoln Inst of Land Policy. This book was released on 2014 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This multi-author volume explores large-landscape conservation projects catalyzed by colleges, universities, independent field stations, and research organizations around the world. These initiatives are grand-scale, cross-boundary, cross-sectoral, and cross-disciplinary efforts to protect working and wild landscapes and waterscapes in Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Kenya, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, and the United States"--