Promoting a Way to Preserve Bits of Land
Two Trusts Spread the Word on Temporary Tax Breaks for Conservation Easements

By Susan DeFord
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2007

Greg Greisman's quaint stone house, a former 19th-century stable, sits off bumpy, gravelly Norris Lane, surrounded by Patapsco Valley State Park. Even in this old, woodsy enclave of eastern Howard County, Greisman worries about the pace of change and subdivisions sprouting along nearby Landing Road.

"You almost feel like nothing's safe," said Greisman, 48, who lives within view of the sprawling Victorian house where he grew up with his parents and four siblings. "If it's private property, it has the potential to be developed."

Greisman, a board member of the Rockburn Land Trust, has taken steps to permanently protect three undeveloped acres he owns and help his parents limit building on their 16 acres. He's hoping there are more people who think as he does about seeking lasting protection even for small parcels.

To that end, members of the Elkridge-based Rockburn trust and the Howard County Conservancy in Woodstock are publicizing a change in federal tax law that benefits those who donate conservation easements. They also are asking the county to help pay for placing easements on private parcels.

The two land trusts have identified 200 private parcels of 20 acres or less around Howard that might be good candidates and that don't qualify for the county's agricultural preservation program, which pays landowners up to $40,000 an acre for development rights.

"There's definitely conservation value in that," said Meg Schumacher, executive director of the Howard County Conservancy and a board member of the Rockburn Land Trust. "The growth that's been happening in Howard County has gotten local land trusts to that point."

Greisman owns a three-acre lot that he could have sold, perhaps for hundreds of thousands of dollars, for a homesite, but he chose to receive federal and state tax breaks by donating the development rights and placing the land under a permanent easement.

"I never bought it with the idea I was going to chop it up and sell it for profit," said Greisman, a construction contractor who has become an amateur historian of the land where he grew up and the home his parents purchased 45 years ago.

Greisman took advantage of a recent temporary change to federal tax law that Congress enacted in August to give greater tax benefits largely to farmers and ranchers who have significant land holdings but not much income. The changes enable those who donate development rights to deduct more from their adjusted gross income, reducing their taxable income by as much as half. They're allowed to take that deduction for up to 16 years, instead of six years, said Russ Shay, director of public policy for the Washington-based Land Trust Alliance.

"It has produced a surge of interest in donations. In some cases we know of donations that have been made because this has passed," he said.

The enhanced federal tax deductions apply only to easements donated this year and last, Shay said. Conservation groups are trying to persuade Congress to extend the tax benefit beyond 2007, realizing that a looming deadline may intimidate landowners.

"You're donating what may be your family's most valuable asset," Shay said. "It requires careful thinking and planning about the future of that land, the future of that family. It shouldn't be rushed."

For Christopher Vale and his wife, Sharon, the decision to donate their four-acre property next to Rockburn Branch Park off Landing Road was swayed by memories of their four boys playing in the woods and winding streams.

"This is where you grew up," Vale, 67, said he told his sons recently. "We want to keep it that way. They said it's all right."

"It's not about the money," added his wife. "It's about the land."

But emotional ties can't alleviate significant initial costs landowners bear as they undergo the donation process. There are land appraisals and attorney fees that can amount to several thousand dollars.

"We have heard that has been a roadblock for people," Schumacher said. In response, the two land trusts are asking the county executive to include $125,000 in his coming budget to help the trusts promote, acquire and monitor easements.

"We are very interested in the proposal," said Joshua Feldmark, executive director of the county's Commission on the Environment and Sustainability. "We're looking for ways to address the issue of sporadic in-fill. This seems to us to be an interesting and worthwhile way to look at this issue."

Yuka Manabe, along with her husband, Jim Campbell, and four children, moved into their house off Landing Road last year. They love the fact that their old farmhouse and three acres are surrounded by Rockburn Branch Park, but with their busy, demanding lives as medical researchers, they don't know whether they can put down permanent roots. Even so, they are considering a conservation easement.

"The amount of green space left on this side of the county is small," said Manabe, 41. "A lot of it is in my back yard."

With an easement, "maybe what I can give this community is a little less traffic on the road," she said. "Trees that are older than any of us. A place that has not been built up."

The Howard County Conservancy and Rockburn Land Trust will review conservation easements with landowners from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Gudelsky Environmental Education Center, 10520 Old Frederick Rd., Woodstock. 410-465-8877.