The Wildlife Land Trust is always in the process of working with landowners to establish new sanctuaries, forming partnerships with other land preservation organizations, and seeking new ways to protect wildlife by preserving habitat. Here are just a few examples of recent achievements and other exciting developments at the Wildlife Land Trust.

PROTECTING LAND FOR WILDLIFE

Protecting Land for Wildlife is a special guide for landowners, explaining land protection strategies in greater detail than our Conservation Options page on this website. Please use the Publication Request Form to request a free copy of the booklet.

COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION PACKET

To receive a comprehensive information packet, including a Land Preservation Information Form, which you will need to apply for protection of your land, send us an email from the Publication Request Form.

WILDLIFE LANDS ANNUAL REPORT 2006

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WILDLIFE LANDS NEWSLETTER

The Wildlife Land Trust's full-color newsletter, Wildlife Lands, features recently acquired sanctuaries and highlights the Trust's philosophy, progress, and future plans.

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WILDLIFE LANDS AUSTRALIA NEWSLETTER

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PERMANENT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY ESTABLISHED ON WASHINGTON-IDAHO BORDER

Two northeast Washington landowners have donated a conservation easement to The Humane Society of the United States Wildlife Land Trust, permanently protecting their property for wildlife. The resulting sanctuary is 25 acres in an area that is rapidly losing habitat to development.

Established by Jeri Cross and Ruby Niemeyer, the sanctuary is located approximately 50 miles northeast of Spokane, and its eastern boundary coincides with the state boundary between Washington and Idaho. The 14,000-acre Mount Spokane State Park—a haven for wildlife—lies just beyond a neighboring property.

The Cross-Niemeyer Wildlife Sanctuary is primarily forested, and includes a large grove of aspen trees that flood every spring. The resident mix of wetlands and dry pine forest provide a diversity of habitat for animals. “There’s a lot of wildlife—it’s like a nature show every day,” said Cross, a musician and retired medical laboratory scientist. “We have this big picture window in our cabin, and friends come and say ‘Don’t turn on the TV—this is so much better!’”

A conservation easement is a permanent and legally enforceable agreement between a landowner and a land trust. The landowner agrees to establish the property as a permanent wildlife sanctuary—an agreement that is binding on all future owners of the property—and the land trust enforces the terms of the agreement. For The HSUS Wildlife Land Trust, these terms always include no recreational or commercial hunting or trapping.

Cross and Neimeyer are concerned about the threat that development poses to the moose, elk, black bears, eagles, turkeys and myriad other species that frequent their area. “Animals have no choice but to either move elsewhere or come closer to people, which isn’t in their best interest either,” said Cross, who also worries about hunting and trapping pressures on wildlife populations. “The city is just moving out to the suburbs, and the animals have to go further and further up into the hills.” Cross and Neimeyer first approached a local land trust about their property, but were referred to the Trust as a potentially better fit for their needs. “Finding an organization to serve general conservation purposes and to provide wildlife with a permanent sanctuary is not an easy task for landowners,” Robert Koons, executive director of the Trust said. “Our niche, as the only national organization that prohibits recreational and commercial hunting and trapping on its sanctuaries, offered these donors the opportunity to fulfill their key goals.”

CONSERVATION TAX INCENTIVE UPDATE

On January 31, 2007, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) introduced S. 469, a bill that would make the newly expanded tax incentive for conservation easement donations permanent. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) co-sponsored the bill.

On February 5, 2007, President Bush released his FY 2008 budget - and it, too, will include a provision to make the tax incentive permanent.

The tax incentive for conservation easement donations was passed by Congress in late 2006. This incentive:

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 and ranchers 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.

These changes provide significant tax savings to landowners who may not have benefited from the previous tax treatment of conservation easements, often because their income level.

Currently, the 2006 law will expire at the end of this year. S. 469 would prevent that, and permanently ensure donations of conservation easements are a possibility for modest income level landowners.

If you are interested in the Wildlife Land Trust holding a conservation easement on your property, please contact us at 1-800-729-SAVE.