Vermont Land Trust Press Release - Vermont Champions of Conservation Win National Awards

For Immediate Release: October 26, 2006
For more information, please contact:
Elise Annes, Vice President for Community Relations 802-223-5234

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Vermont Champions of Conservation Win National Awards
U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords and the Vermont Land Trust President Darby Bradley Honored

The Washington, D.C.-based Land Trust Alliance recognized Senator Jim Jeffords this month with a Congressional Leadership Award. This award was given in recognition of Senator Jeffords’s support of land conservation, in particular his work to expand the tax incentive for donating conservation easements. Ultimately Senator Jeffords’s work through several legislative battles led to the successful passage of this legislation.
Senator Jeffords recently said that, "the expansion of Federal tax credits is something that I've worked for since I introduced the Conservation Tax Incentives Act of 1999. Persistence and patience pay off, it seems, in legislation as in conservation."

This past summer, Congress approved legislation and on August 17, 2006, President Bush signed into law the Pension Protection Act of 2006. This legislation contains a two-year provision that in 2006 and 2007 will enhance the tax benefits of protecting land donated through a conservation easement.

The new law:

Raises the deduction a landowner can take for donating a conservation easement from 30% of their income in any year to 50%;
Allows qualifying farmers to deduct up to 100% of their income; and
Extends the carry-forward period for a donor to take tax deductions for a voluntary conservation agreement from 5 to 15 years.
For now, this law only applies to easements donated in 2006 and 2007.
This law also protects the public interest by including a significant tightening of the rules for appraisals of all donated property, including stiff penalties for inflated appraisals.

In another case of national recognition of a Vermont conservation leader, last week the Land Trust Alliance announced the first annual Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award, given to Vermont’s Darby Bradley, President of the Vermont Land Trust. The award was made at the National Land Conservation Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, before a standing-room only crowd of 1500 people, including Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and was offered to Bradley for his tireless championing of conservation throughout Vermont and the Nation.

Bradley’s award was presented by Land Trust Alliance President Rand Wentworth and former President Jean Hocker, who commended Bradley as “a humble man who has dedicated his life to conservation. It is truly inspiring to see how much one passionate and dedicated person can do over a relatively short period of time.”
Senator Jeffords demonstrated his support for Darby Bradley and offered: "I am pleased to be recognized along with Darby Bradley. He has earned the highest honor given by his peers, and deservedly so."

The new award, named after Boston attorney Kingsbury Browne (1922-2005), will each year be given to an outstanding individual whose vision and creativity have resulted in extraordinary accomplishments for land conservation and the land trust community in the United States. Browne is credited as one of the founder’s of America’s modern land trust movement, now a network of more than 1500 land trusts operating throughout the US. Together these land trusts have conserved more than 34 million acres, more land than in all of the lower 48 states combined.

In his acceptance address, Darby Bradley said, “I am honored to be the recipient of this award from a conservation community which has accomplished so much. Kingsbury Browne had a big vision: to transform land trusts from small, isolated groups to a national movement. Twenty five years later, we obviously succeeded.”

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About Land Trust Alliance: Land Trust Alliance was formed in 1982 to advance the mission of land trusts. Since its inception, Land Trust Alliance has trained thousands of conservation leaders, won new federal tax incentives for conservation on private lands, and developed standards and practices to professionalize and safeguard land trust work. Land Trust Alliance connects land trusts, so that every land trust can benefit from the collective wisdom and innovations of the entire community. It is based in Washington, DC with field offices in most regions of the country.