Protecting the Land: Conservation Easements Past, Present, and Future
foreword by Jean Hocker edited by Julie Ann Gustanski and Roderick Squires
Island Press, 2000 eISBN: 978-1-61091-578-6 | Paper: 978-1-55963-654-4 Library of Congress Classification KF658.C65P76 2000 Dewey Decimal Classification 346.730435
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
ABOUT THIS BOOK
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.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Julie Ann Gustanski, LLM, AICP, is an economist, policy analyst, planner, social scientist and land conservation specialist and is president of Resource Dimensions, a Washington-based, woman-owned economic and policy consulting firm specializing in integrated analysis and development of sustainable solutions to today’s intractable land use and environmental challenges. She has worked with a wide-range of public and private sector partners in over 20 states to develop creative and lasting solutions to economic, community development, land use, conservation and transportation issues. Prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2002, she made her home in Aberlady, Scotland (near Edinburgh) and lectured in resource and environmental economics at Edinburgh University. Formerly, she was president of 4Ever Land Conservation Associates with offices in Pennsylvania and Minnesota and later joined ECONorthwest in Seattle as a senior environmental economist/planner. Julie has also served as a visiting professor in the ecological economics program at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and continues as an adjunct professor in the International Program for Ecological Economics at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. She is widely published and recognized for her research and work to meld issues of social responsibility and economics with impact analysis and sustainability criteria in long-range planning efforts related to land use issues. She is a trained mediator and is certified by the U.S. Institute of Environmental Conflict Resolution. Since 1985, she has been an active member of the land conservation community in the US and UK and has helped to protect over 200,000 acres of land in six US states. She has also developed land conservation programs in over a dozen states, served as the director of the Bucks County, PA Agricultural Land Preservation Program, and as executive director of a land trust in South-central Pennsylvania. Julie is also a founding member of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association (PaLTA) and has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations dedicated to ecological sustainability and conservation issues both in the US and abroad.
Roderick Squires is associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
Protecting the Land: Conservation Easements Past, Present, and Future
foreword by Jean Hocker edited by Julie Ann Gustanski and Roderick Squires
Island Press, 2000 eISBN: 978-1-61091-578-6 Paper: 978-1-55963-654-4
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.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Julie Ann Gustanski, LLM, AICP, is an economist, policy analyst, planner, social scientist and land conservation specialist and is president of Resource Dimensions, a Washington-based, woman-owned economic and policy consulting firm specializing in integrated analysis and development of sustainable solutions to today’s intractable land use and environmental challenges. She has worked with a wide-range of public and private sector partners in over 20 states to develop creative and lasting solutions to economic, community development, land use, conservation and transportation issues. Prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2002, she made her home in Aberlady, Scotland (near Edinburgh) and lectured in resource and environmental economics at Edinburgh University. Formerly, she was president of 4Ever Land Conservation Associates with offices in Pennsylvania and Minnesota and later joined ECONorthwest in Seattle as a senior environmental economist/planner. Julie has also served as a visiting professor in the ecological economics program at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and continues as an adjunct professor in the International Program for Ecological Economics at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. She is widely published and recognized for her research and work to meld issues of social responsibility and economics with impact analysis and sustainability criteria in long-range planning efforts related to land use issues. She is a trained mediator and is certified by the U.S. Institute of Environmental Conflict Resolution. Since 1985, she has been an active member of the land conservation community in the US and UK and has helped to protect over 200,000 acres of land in six US states. She has also developed land conservation programs in over a dozen states, served as the director of the Bucks County, PA Agricultural Land Preservation Program, and as executive director of a land trust in South-central Pennsylvania. Julie is also a founding member of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association (PaLTA) and has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations dedicated to ecological sustainability and conservation issues both in the US and abroad.
Roderick Squires is associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.