Law Commons^™

Keeping The Perpetual In Florida's Conservation Easements, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in the protection of the Florida Wildlife Corridor and other environmentally sensitive lands. One of the primary tools being used to accomplish this protection is the perpetual conservation easement, which is touted to landowners and the public as providing a permanent guarantee that the subject lands will never be developed. There is a very real danger, however, that perpetual conservation easements in Florida may not, in fact, be perpetual, and that the protections put in place today will vanish over time—along with the public funds invested therein—as government and nonprofit holders “release” …

Building Better Conservation Easements For America The Beautiful, K. King Burnett, John D. Leshy, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In January 2021, the Biden Administration endorsed the goal of protecting 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 to conserve biodiversity and help curb greenhouse gas emissions. The Administration’s initial report on this “America the Beautiful” initiative, issued in May, indicates that federally-deductible conservation easements are likely to play an important role in its implementation. This essay addresses whether and how such easements should be counted in this process.

This matter is of great importance. Donations of conservation easements, by which landowners receive generous federal tax deductions if they restrict the use of their properties in perpetuity in …