Conservation easement program gets tighter oversight with new law

MONTROSE — Preventing abuse of state conservation easement tax credits is the aim of a measure signed into law by Gov. Bill Ritter Thursday.

Conservation easements are sold or donated by private landowners to nonprofit or governmental entities to guarantee that a parcel of land will never be developed. Concerns and questions have been raised about abuse of Colorado’s program, which was set up to encourage the creation of these easements.

Published reports documented occurrences, including those in Denver and Larimer County, of those who misrepresented a property’s or land’s conservation or financial value to gain the credit.

House Bill 1353, sponsored by House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, and Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, puts a number of accountability and oversight measures in place, including a requirement that appraisers submit conservation easement appraisals to the Colorado Division of Real Estate. The measure also creates a certification program for groups that hold conservation easements, and creates a Conservation Easement Oversight Commission.

“It’s (the law) important because it allows the public to know there is very specific oversight of the state’s conservation easement tax credit law,” said Barbara Hawke, Black Canyon Land Trust executive director.

Although Hawke said she isn’t aware of any specific concerns about abuse of conservation easement law in Montrose County, questions raised statewide and nationally should be addressed locally, she said.

The county has an estimated 80 conservation easements, Hawke said. The easements are held by a variety of land conservation organizations and conserve about 11,800 acres. The Black Canyon Land Trust in particular holds more than 60 conservation easements in the county, conserving more than 7,000 acres of land.

“This law preserves the conservation easement tax credit program because of all the good it’s done to preserve agricultural lands and to give farmers and ranchers an option to stay on their farms,” Isgar said in a statement. “It’s important to take these steps to preserve this cost-effective program and the state budget.”

Ritter said the new law keeps Colorado at the forefront of national efforts to encourage conservation of one-of-a-kind landscapes. “But it creates tough new safeguards against abuses of Colorado’s conservation easement tax credits,” he said in news release. “Colorado will continue to support legitimate land conservation but we will not tolerate schemes to exploit the program for financial gain.”

The value of Colorado’s conservation easement program has always been clear but the state needed to weed out the fraud and get the focus back on the quality deals that protect Colorado’s scenic lands, Madden said in a news release. “With the help of the mainstream conservation community, the governor’s office and state regulators, we have accomplished that goal with this new law.”

This new measure follows other recent gains for land conservation. The recently enacted new Farm Bill renews and expands federal tax incentives for land conservation that expired at the beginning of 2008. Five major land conservation organizations also came together to form the Colorado Conservation Partnership, aimed at consolidating fundraising and conservation planning.

“I’ve been in land conservation here in Colorado for close to 10 years and this is the first time I’ve seen this many conservation organizations truly coordinate fundraising and planning efforts,” Hawke said.