Currently has 650 acres in conservation easements and is planning to conserve another 25, 000 acres.
The land trust movement, from which conservation easements sprang, has been around for more than a century.
FORBES: Hedge Fund Giant Louis Bacon's Bold Mission To Save The American West
Conservation easements offer a neat way for wealthy environmentalists like Bacon to have their cake and eat it, too.
FORBES: Hedge Fund Giant Louis Bacon's Bold Mission To Save The American West
Colorado Open Lands, one of 39 local and statewide land trusts, processed between eight and 12 conservation easements in 2002.
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Most environmental groups think a piecemeal approach outright land purchase, with conservation easements in special cases might be a compromise worth pursuing.
The certainty at least through year-end should help spur donations of conservation easements again.
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Conservation easements, unlike national parks, do generally allow for some economic activity to happen, usually preexisting uses like agriculture and sustainable timber cutting.
FORBES: Hedge Fund Giant Louis Bacon's Bold Mission To Save The American West
In the years since, private timber companies have found it increasingly attractive to sell their land for conservation easements rather than chase the harvest or sell the land for private development.
Tax deductions for conservation easements are not new.
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He plans to keep 95% of Silver Bow undeveloped and is negotiating to donate conservation easements to groups such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, a pro-hunting group, and the Montana Land Reliance, a land trust.
Conservation easements have been a powerful tool to protect land from development, and conservationists are lauding the new tax law for extending enhanced federal tax breaks for donating land development rights through 2013 (and retroactively back to Jan. 1, 2012).
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Money from the agreement may be used to purchase public easements and hiking trails in the Big Sur area and as grants for nonprofits doing conservation projects.
And though easements created by private individuals are generally not open to the public, they do serve the conservation purpose of keeping the land pristine and open and undisturbed for watersheds and critical flora and fauna.
FORBES: Hedge Fund Giant Louis Bacon's Bold Mission To Save The American West
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