Sunday, September 07, 2008

By Danny Valentine
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

For 18 years, Tom Dickerson has roamed his 9-acre Sarpy County prairie, notebook in hand, scribbling down the names of more than 100 plant species while delicately avoiding legions of ground hornets.

He has documented more than 60 types of flowering plants alone, including his personal favorite, the bright orange butterfly milkweed and even the threatened western prairie fringed orchid.

Like the threatened orchid, this prairie itself is rare -- virgin tallgrass prairie never before touched by a plow .

"It's a piece of history, and I'm into history,'' said Tom Dickerson. The Flat River Pointe prairie, located on the hills above the Platte River, is among the 1 percent of original Nebraska prairie remaining today .

The small prairie, belonging to Dickerson and his wife, Patty Shanahan, is unique in another way, too: It's one of a minority of prairies to be protected from future development by a program that grants property owners a federal tax deduction for foregoing their development rights.

Dickerson and Shanahan recently put the finishing touches on a so-called conservation easement they hope will protect their small hilltop prairie for generations.

In doing so, the couple joined a growing number of Nebraskans protecting their land with easements, said David Sands, the executive director of the Nebraska Land Trust .

Easements are attached to a property's deed, following the property down the line of owners.

The easement means property owners cannot develop their land or sell it to a developer, said Tim Knott, a member of the conservation committee with the Wachiska Audubon Society based out of Lincoln. In exchange, the property owner receives a federal tax deduction.

Depending on the size of the property and the location, easements can provide owners with significant tax relief. Forgoing the ability to develop a large ranch, for example, could result in millions of dollars in tax relief, Sands said.

"It can be a really nice tax benefit,'' said Jim Becic, environmental coordinator with the PapioMissouri National Resource District .

Wachiska owns the Flat River Pointe prairie easement. Dickerson and Shanahan aren't sure how much they'll receive from their easement.

About a dozen states offer their own state income tax credits in exchange for easements, complementing the federal program. Despite three efforts, the Nebraska Legislature hasn't agreed to allow state income tax credits in exchange for conservation easements.

One reason easements are growing in popularity among conservation organizations is that they are an incentive for voluntary conservation, which appeals to the fact Nebraska is nearly entirely -- 97 percent -- a privately owned state .

"Only a landowner can open the door to a conservation easement, but we are finding more landowners willing to do that,'' Sands said.

For example, the Nebraska Land Trust is on pace to have its best year this year, roughly doubling the number of acres protected . This means it will protect land along the Platte River, historic sites and habitat for the American Burying Beetle.

One of at least five land trusts in the state, the organization's recent success mirrors accomplishments other conservation groups have had across the state.

Between 2000 and 2005, about 17,900 acres, more than twice the acreage previously protected, were conserved by land trusts in Nebraska, according to the 2005 National Land Trust Census .

"It's indicative of the growing interest in easements,'' Sands said.

But successful conservation efforts haven't always been the case in Nebraska.

Until about three years ago, Nebraska had fewer protected acres of land than most other Midwest states, Sands said. And the Midwest region, as a whole, ranks last in the amount of protected land in the country, according to the Land Trust Census .

As of 2005, Nebraska ranked in the middle of the Midwest pack in terms of protected land . In terms of its overall conservation, however, Iowa has protected 88,000 acres -- about 53,000 more acres than Nebraska. "Intuitively that doesn't seem right -- we have great conservation land,'' Sands said. "In terms of catching other states we have a long way to go.''

Sands attributes the relative lack of development restrictions to the fact that Nebraska has been under less pressure from the growth seen in a more urban and industrial state like Iowa.

But that's changing, he said: "Frankly, in Nebraska, we still have beautiful land at a pretty reasonable cost. People are beginning to realize a lot of the natural resources could still be bought up.''

Overall, the total number of acres conserved across the country increased substantially to 37 million acres between 2000 and 2005.

Simply making people knowledgeable about easements has proven to be difficult, Sands said.

Few people know about the conservation option, he said, and once they are informed it's often a long process before an easement is put in place.

"It's a very big decision, and it's not something landowners jump at,'' Sands said. "If they don't perceive a threat, they are not going to do it.''

For Peggy Fletcher, who recently put an easement on her prairie near Lincoln, the process
took around seven years.

"It was something we were passionate about,'' she said, "so we did it.''