Conservation Easement abuse two-edged sword

There are big federal and state tax breaks available to farmers, ranchers and other rural landowners who place covenants on their land that it will never be developed--it will remain rural, or in production agriculture, forever.

As a lover of agriculture and rural America, I can identify with that sentiment. It might well be a worthy goal worth foregoing tax revenue for.

But needless to say, no good deed goes unpunished. Wealthy non-agriculture types have bought up rural land, taken the tax breaks for signing a Conservation Easement, and still own the land that can be used for hunting and fishing, hiking or agricultural production. Abuses have turned up where they bought the land cheap, obtained inflated appraisals for the land, and taken tax breaks that nearly recouped their initial investment--in essence, obtaining the land for free.

Tax breaks do no good if you don't have enough income to take advantage of them. Farmers and ranchers are frequently in that situation, so have little incentive to sign a Conservation Easement. Wealthy speculators are not.

You can hardly blame a farmer or rancher, who after a lifetime of toil on the land and facing a bleak retirement, cashes in the only asset he has, the land. When a wealthy investor comes calling, the temptation and lure of cashing in is almost too good to pass up. The investor, in order to get a return on his money, is either looking at developing the land, or recouping the investment with a Conservation Easement.

This creates a real dilemma for the career farmer or rancher. It's a Hobson's choice--take the money and run, or wince at the likely outcome of his life's work.