Farmers and ranchers hope to get reparations for overturned conservation easements

What type of land is worth preserving forever with a conservation easement, and what type of land isn't? That's the question facing a working group that met for the first time Thursday in Lamar that must decide what to do about landowners who lost millions of dollars in tax credits from disallowed conservation easements. The group toured several properties in southeastern Colorado, which is consider a "hot spot" for easements that the Department of Revenue have said have zero value for conservation. An easement works like this: a landowner either sells or donates development rights for property in the form of an easement to a government or nonprofit entity to preserve the land for its conservation value. The owner retains title to the land but the easement holder keeps the acreage from ever being developed. In the case of a donation of an easement, the landowner can be eligible for state tax credits and a federal tax deduction. An easement is forever. Once granted, it passes on to the heirs of landowners who made the original easement agreement. But the program, which has been in state law since 2000, has become a nightmare for hundreds of Colorado farmers and ranchers who claim the Colorado Department of Revenue disallowed their tax credits, claiming the lands they donated have no conservation value. It’s led to bankruptcies, divorces and foreclosures for those who have lost millions of dollars in tax credits plus penalties, interest and legal costs. Out of 4,200 easements granted, 860 were disallowed by state revenue officials between 2000 and 2013.During the 2019 legislative session, lawmakers approved House Bill 19-1264, which set up the working group and tasked it with three duties: reparations for disallowed easements; how to deal with “orphan” easements, which are those taken over by a land trust that has gone out of business; and alternative valuation, or a new way to appraise land for conservation purposes...MORE