Crabtree Neck Land Trust

Conserve Your Land

CNLT realizes that many people want to preserve their land, but don’t know what options are available for them to do so. With this in mind, we have provided some brief summaries of different conservation tools one can use for the preservation of property. These are intended to provide you with an overview of the options available; should you be interested in exploring any of these further, we recommend you contact your financial advisor, and feel free to contact us at info@crabtreenecklandtrust.org.

Maine Coast Heritage Trust also offers this helpful guide –
Conservation Options, A Guide for Maine Landowners

Fall Colors

A Conservationist’s Story

Conserving the Carters Beach Corridor is a dream that the neighboring landowners and the broader community have envisioned since the beginning of Crabtree Neck Land Trust. Protecting this long stretch of undeveloped oceanfront property, to provide viewsheds and wildlife habitat, is coming close to fruition.

CNLT Board Member Jamie Paterson and his family donated the first plots in 2016. Marcia, my wife, and I donated an initial parcel of two plus acres opposite the last parking turn out before the Salt Pond in 2017. Year-round residents, summer residents, and other visitors often walk the shoreline enjoying the beauty and solitude of this stretch of raw land.

This summer, Marcia and I donated a five acre parcel of land which abuts our previously donated two acre parcel. We are close to fulfilling the dream.

The turnout towards the end of the road holds many fond memories: of picnics as a child and now with our children and grandchildren, and of my Mother and Father swimming with us and skipping stones. It’s a special place that, with CNLT’s help, we will save for generations to come.

— Steve Crabtree, CNLT Board Member, October 2019

Ways to Conserve

1. Conservation Easements

  • Permanent preservation
  • Landowner maintains private ownership and use of the land
  • Conservation easements delineate specific prohibited and permitted uses of the property
  • Easements ”run with the land“ – all subsequent owners must abide by conditions outlined in the easement
  • Property owner continues to pay taxes
  • Property owner is entitled to income and estate tax deductions for a portion of the value of easement

2. Fee transactions

  • Land trust purchases property outright at fair market value

3. Bargain Sales

  • Owner sells land for conservation at a bargain price (below fair market value) which takes advantage of federal income tax incentives. (Sale price is reduced so that the seller can take a tax write-off for the difference between the sale and the market price.)

4. Conservation Buyers

  • Combines fee transaction and conservation easement
  • Trust buys the property, sells off a portion of it and places the remainder of land under conservation

5. Gift in Fee Simple (Donations of Land)

  • The property is given to the Trust
  • The donor is entitled to an income tax deduction for the value of the property

6. Sale of Development Rights

  • Similar to placing a conservation easement on a property
  • Use of land is restricted to conservation purposes
  • The value or sale price of development rights is the difference between the land‘s fair market value for development, and its value for conservation purposes
  • The landowner retains title to the land, while the right to develop all or part of the land in the future has been removed

The information presented on this website is not offered as tax or legal advice. Please consult with your financial planner, tax advisor, or attorney about the legal and tax benefits of any gift of securities to the Crabtree Neck Land Trust.

Crabtree Neck Land Trust is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable 501(c)(3) organization. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Our EIN/federal tax identification number is 10-0011413.