Recent Accomplishments

Over the past several years, Shirley Heinze Land Trusthas acquired ---via purchase, donation, or tax sale ---key additions to the following nature preserves:

• Three additions to Ambler Flatwoods totaling 49-acres which increases our holdings to 208-acres;
• Two additions totaling 7 acres, increases our holdings to 90 acres at John Merle Coulter Nature Preserve;
• The acquisition of Hildebrand Lake (30 acres); also, a Life Estate on an adjacent property;
• The acquisition of Barker Woods (30 acres);
• The acquisition of 7 acres of high dune in Miller;
• A 3-acre addition, and multiple lot acquisitions, were added to our holdings of globally rare dune-and-swale landscape at Ivanhoe South in Gary;
• Additions to Green Heron Pond in Gary and the Great Marsh in Beverly Shores by acquiring properties at tax sale;
• A conservation easement was placed on 30 acres of upland woods in Valparaiso;

Finally, we purchased nearly two acres of degraded prairie for donation to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Goals

We are actively seeking properties that add significantly to protected habitat. These may be large tracts with sustainable natural communities or additions and buffers, in some cases small parcels, to already protected areas. We will continue to cooperate with other land protection organizations, public and private, to ensure that land is placed under the control of the most appropriate owner. The southern Lake Michigan watershed will remain our priority, although, under special circumstances, we will consider land outside the watershed.

In the years ahead, Shirley Heinze Land Trust intends to make significant additions to our holdings throughout Northwest Indiana.

These are a sampling of the properties that Shirley Heinze Land Trust is working hard to acquire in Lake, Porter and LaPortecounties:

• Over 100 acres of rare dune-and-swale and oak savanna habitat in Gary that would expand existing holdings;
• 30 acres of floodplain and forest along the Little Calumet River in Porter County;
• A lush 75-acre expanse of wooded ravines and wetlands on the north face of the Valparaiso Moraine in LaPorteCounty;
• A 90-acre addition to our state dedicated Ambler Flatwoods Nature Preserve.

Conservations Options for Land Owners

How To Conserve Your Land

When you’re ready to conserve your land, you can turn to land trusts—nonprofit organizations that work with landowners interested in protecting open space. Shirley Heinze Land Trust operates in the Indiana Counties of Lake, Porter, and LaPorte, primarily in the Lake Michigan watershed. To find a land trust in your area, consult the Land Trust Alliance website www.lta.org.

Many conservation methods are available for private landowners and land trusts to use to work together to conserve land for its natural, recreational, scenic, historical, and productive value. Depending on your needs and wishes and the property’s attributes, land trusts use a variety of conservation techniques to help landowners conserve their land.

Conservation Easements

The most traditional tool for conserving private land, a “conservation easement” (also known as a conservation restriction) is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values. It allows landowners to continue to own and use their land, and they can also sell it or pass it on to heirs.

When you donate a conservation easement to a land trust, you give up some of the rights associated with the land. For example, you might give up the right to build additional structures, while retaining the right to grow crops. Future owners also will be bound by the easement’s terms. The land trust is responsible for making sure the easement’s terms are followed. This is managed through “stewardship” by the land trust.

Conservation easements offer great flexibility. An easement on property containing rare wildlife habitat might prohibit any development, for example, while an easement on a farm might allow continued farming and the addition of agricultural structures. An easement may apply to all or a portion of the property, and need not require public access.

Qualifying For A Tax Deduction: A landowner sometimes sells a conservation easement, but usually easements are donated to a land trust. If the donation benefits the public by permanently protecting important conservation resources, and meets other federal tax code requirements, it can qualify as a tax-deductible charitable donation. Easement values vary greatly; in general, the highest easement values result from very restrictive conservation easements on tracts of developable open space under intense development pressure. In some jurisdictions, placing an easement on your property may also result in property tax savings.

Reducing Estate Taxes: Perhaps the most important benefit, a conservation easement can be essential for passing undeveloped land on to the next generation. By removing the land’s development potential, the easement typically lowers the property’s market value, which in turn lowers potential estate tax. Whether the easement is donated during life or by will, it can make a critical difference in one’s heirs’ ability to keep the land intact.

Resale of Land

If you need to sell your land but don’t want to see it destroyed by development, a land trust can help. Prior to the sale, you can work with your local land trust to place a conservation easement on the land before it goes on the market. Some land trusts can also help identify potential buyers for conserved lands.

Donation of Land for Conservation

Donating land for conservation is one of the finest legacies a person can leave to future generations. If you choose to donate your land, your land trust can work with you to identify the best arrangement. The land trust might retain ownership of the property as a permanent preserve or transfer the property to a suitable owner, such as a government agency. In some cases, the land is sold to a private owner, subject to a conservation easement held by the land trust. (Proceeds from such a sale could fund the land trust’s long-term management of the conservation easement and/or help it to protect even more land.) The full market value of land donated to a nonprofit land trust is tax deductible as a charitable gift.

Bargain Sale

In a bargain sale, you sell your land to a land trust for less than its fair market value. This not only makes it more affordable for the land trust, but offers several benefits to you: it provides cash, avoids some capital gains tax, and entitles you to a charitable income tax deduction based on the difference between the land’s fair market value and its sale price.

Donation with a Lifetime Income

If you have land you would like to protect by donating it to a land trust, but you need to receive income during your lifetime, consider a charitable gift annuity or a charitable remainder unitrust. Charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder unitrusts are most useful for highly appreciated land, the sale of which would incur high capital gains tax.

FOR MORE INFORMATION on land conservation options, contact Shirley Heinze Land Trust. When considering any of the possibilities described above, landowners should consult with their personal attorneys and financial advisors.

NOTE: The above information was developed from materials made available by the Land Trust Alliance.

Conservation Planning Projects

Shirley Heinze Land Trust developed a successful conservation planning project for the Ambler Flatwoods area. With the assistance of a generous grant from the Land Trust Alliance, we were able to acquire geographic information systems (GIS) technology and training, which have allowed us to undertake a systematic planning effort to save the remaining parcels of boreal flatwoods, one of Indiana’s rarest natural communities. That project is already paying dividends, and its success has encouraged us to undertake a similar effort – along with two other local land trusts – aimed at the moraine forest in Porter and LaPorte Counties.

Here is the conservation planning map that was distributed to property owners identified in the project.