Largest-ever donation to Montana Land Reliance. Conservation Easements are successful at preserving the best of Montana for future generations

An icy wind whipped down from the Adel Mountains in the distance and across the brown, rolling grassland of the Sieben Live Stock Company ranch.

Although the sunny blue sky held promise of spring, patches of snow, frozen mud and ice still gripped the landscape.

In a nearby field, a ranch hand spread hay for the heifers. Down at the lambing shed, the ranch foreman’s wife shepherded newborn lambs into straw-filled pens to nurse with their mamas.

This family ranching operation has endured and thrived on this land for the past century.

Tyrrell Hibbard is the fifth generation of his family to operate the ranch. He took a break Wednesday from his round of winter chores to talk about a momentous decision his family made to preserve the ranch.

In the past months, they donated a 40,064-acre conservation easement to the Montana Land Reliance. It is the biggest conservation easement ever donated to the land trust in its 30-year history.

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What is a conservation easement?

It is a perpetual deed restriction that preserves land from development. It runs with the title of the property regardless of future ownership.

Donating an easement can yield state and federal tax savings. Montana Land Reliance compares land ownership to holding a bundle of land rights, including development rights, water rights, road easement rights, or mineral rights.

With a conservation easement, the development rights are donated to the Reliance or another land trust. Each conservation easement is both the same and different, according to MLR. While they are the same in that they all prevent conversion of the land, they differ in being tailored to the particular property and needs of the family.

To do a conservation easement, the land must have conservation or open space value.

Tax benefit legislation

The Conservation Title of the 2008 Farm Bill would renew the conservation easement tax incentive that the Hibbard family used in establishing an easement.

The legislation raises the deduction for a conservation easement to 50 percent of adjusted gross income. Previously it has been a 30 percent deduction. It also allows qualified farmers and ranchers to deduct 100 percent of their AGI. And the bill extends the carry-forward period to take tax deductions to 15 years, instead of five years.

The legislation introducing this tax incentive was sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus and was in effect from August 2006 through December 2007. Baucus has re-introduced it as part of the current farm bill.

By MARGA LINCOLN – Independent Record

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