Join And Donate
So, what can you do? That's the most important question you can ask.
The single biggest thing anyone who owns a horse farm (or a farm that grows hay or grains) can do is to donate a permanent conservation easement on it to a local land trust, a government body, or both. A conservation easement is a contract that limits the use of the land, forever, to those agreed to by the landowner and the organization that receives it. The easement transfers with the deed, and the land trust or government agency accepts responsibility for monitoring the property to be sure the agreement is followed, by both the donor and all subsequent owners.
An easement is a contract in which the landowner gives up rights, and no two are exactly alike. But they all restrict building and, often, other uses. But they do not-unless it's part of the agreement-entitle public access to the property.
In exchange for giving up building rights, landowners can take significant reductions in real-estate and income taxes, and their heirs receive significant reduction on the estate taxes. To learn more, go to the Land Trust Alliance website (www.lta.org).
In August, the U.S. Congress passed a law that considerably increased the tax incentives for people considering donating conservation easements. The new law raised the income-tax deduction from 30 percent of the donor's income per year to 50 percent, allows qualifying farmers and ranchers to deduct as much as 100 percent of their income, and extends the carry-forward period for tax deductions from five to 15 years.
Not everyone can donate a conservation easement, but there's more you can do. The biggest is to become a member of and volunteer for organizations that are working hard to preserve the countryside around us, groups like your local land trust or one of the thousands of other conservation groups, the Land Trust Alliance, and the Equestrian Land Conservation Resource.
More than 1,600 land trusts are LTA members, and you can find the one near you on their website. You should keep in mind, though, that not all land-trust leaders are horse friendly. In fact, I'm sorry to say that sometimes they're distinctly not horse-friendly. Sometimes it's understandable, as some land trusts' missions are to protect fragile areas, like wetlands, from any kind of human incursion. But the bulk try to protect land that is, or could be, agricultural, and the leaders ignorantly dismiss horses from their thinking. Usually, members can educate these leaders about the agricultural, open-space and economic benefits horses bring to an area, and that could become your next mission in life.
You can also become politically active in your town, going to Planning Commission or town council or county supervisors' meetings to speak for or (more likely) against proposals for changes to comprehensive plans or zoning requests. You'd be surprised how effective this can be, as politicians are largely ruled by popularity, and if they think they'll lose the next election by voting for a subdivision, you've got a good chance of convincing them to see your side of the horse world's most important issue.
Only one national equestrian organization has saving equestrian lands as its mission, the Equestrian Land Conservation Resource, which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007. I'm an ELCR director, and our goal is to place land conservation on the agenda of every <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 /?> U.S. equestrian organization.
Right now, says Vice President Nancy Winter of Illinois, "We feel like we're on the Mayflower, like we're the true believers who've charted a course to a new place we know little about." That's because it's been a gigantic challenge to convince horse owners of the urgency of our message and join us in our cause.
But we directors think we're about to land on our own Plymouth Rock, one called the Kentucky Horse Park (KHP). The headquarters moved from Illinois to the KHP on March 1, with a new staff to lead us into the next 10 years. We're moving to the KHP-home to about two dozen other equestrian organizations, a wide range competitions from international to local, and thousands of visitors a year-to increase our visibility and to facilitate working with these organizations.
Moving to Kentucky will also help us accomplish our own three-step program, described by co-founder Sophie Pirie Clifton of Montana. Those three steps for conservation, applicable to both organizations and to individuals are: be aware, be literate, and take action.
We know we've got a lot more to do to increase the horse world's awareness of the land-use crisis, but our website (www.elcr.org, 815-858-3501) already contains a multitude of tools to make anyone literate about what actions they can take.
We're extremely pleased that in 2006 we received the endorsement of the U.S. Equestrian Federation's Board of Directors and their commitment to work with us. We also presented a panel discussion on land conservation at the U.S. Eventing Association convention in December, and Clifton, along with Treasurer Larry Byers, worked with leaders of the U.S. Pony Clubs to introduce land-conservation education and volunteer work into the organization's rating standards. With your help, there's much more we can do together. John Strassburger.
