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Aerial View
Write or Call your representatives today!
Senator Lincoln D. Chafee
170 Westminster St., Ste. 1100
Providence, RI 02903
Phone: (401) 453-5294
Fax: (401) 453-5085
Washington Office Phone: (202) 224-2921
Senator Jack Reed
201 Hillside Rd., #200
Cranston, RI 02920
Phone: (401) 943-3100
Fax: (401) 464-6837
Washington Office Phone: (202) 224-4642
Representative Patrick J. Kennedy
249 Roosevelt Ave.
Pawtucket, RI 02860
Phone: (401) 729-5600
Fax: (401) 729-5608
Washington Office Phone (202) 225-4911
Representative James R. Langevin
300 Centerville Rd., Ste. 200 S
Warwick, RI 02886
Phone: (401) 732-9400
Fax: (401) 737-2982
Washington Office Phone: (202) 225-2735
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Aquidneck Land Trust Is on a Roll
On Wednesday, March 23, 2005 the Aquidneck Land Trust received and closed on a Conservation Easement from the State of Rhode Island on its 45.55 +/- acres Town Pond area (also referred to as Boyd,s Marsh) in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. This is the fourth Conservation Easement that the Aquidneck Land Trust has closed on this year resulting in 64.25 +/- acres with important conservation values being permanently protected for our island home just a few months into 2005.
A Conservation Easement is a legal agreement whereby a landowner (such as the State of Rhode Island in the Town Pond transaction) transfers a partial property interest to a conservation organization (such as the Aquidneck Land Trust in the Town Pond project) or government agency to permanently limit a property,s uses (e.g., prohibit development) in order to permanently protect the property,s conservation values (wildlife habitat values, water resource values, scenic values, agricultural values, recreational values, etc.).
Until 1949, the Town Pond area contained a large salt pond connected to Mount Hope Bay by a tidal channel at its north end. Such coastal ponds are valuable habitat for a variety of marine fish and invertebrates as well as waterfowl and wading birds.
In 1949, much of the Town Pond site was converted into a barren mudflat when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used it as a disposal site for dredged sediments from the Mount Hope Bay shipping channel. With time, the invasive common reed Phragmites australis colonized the site.
Today, the Town Pond area has little ecological value because it no longer provides the diversity of habitat that made it attractive to wildlife before the 1949 filling operation. Mosquitoes also proliferate in the degraded brackish-water marsh that exists on the site today.
Town Pond is now the focus of a restoration project led by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, and the Rhode Island Habitat Restoration Team. This project aims to convert the Phragmites marsh into an area of rich aquatic habitat resembling the Town Pond that existed prior to the 1949 dredge-and-fill operation in addition to providing public recreational opportunities. Restoration work is slated to start this year and numerous supporting partners have helped make this project a reality including Ducks Unlimited, Rhode Island Corporate Wetlands Partnership, Roger Williams University, Save the Bay, the Town of Portsmouth, and the Aquidneck Land Trust.
The Aquidneck Land Trust provided $50,000 to the State of Rhode Island for the Conservation Easement on the Town Pond site, thereby blanketing this important conservation area with a set of legal checks and balances, and a $15,000 survey plan of the property that will help with long-term stewardship, etc. This total of $65,000 provided by the Aquidneck Land Trust will bring in $195,000 in matching funds from the federal government for the upcoming environmental restoration work at Town Pond.
The Aquidneck Land Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Its mission is to preserve Aquidneck Island,s open spaces and natural character for the lasting benefit of our community. To date, the Aquidneck Land Trust has conserved over 1,168 acres on Aquidneck Island. For more information, visit www.AquidneckLandTrust.org or call (401) 849-2799.
Conservation Easement Tax Deductions Under Attack:
Join the Fight to Stop the Proposals
Do you think the Aquidneck Land Trust,s mission and its protection of parcels such as the Escobar and Thurston farms in Portsmouth, important scenic properties around Ocean Drive in Newport, and Idle Hour Farm in Middletown are important? If so, join the fight to stop the proposals of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
A recent report released by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation shocked the land trust community by proposing major decreases in the federal tax deductions for Conservation Easements and bargain sales.
The Land Trust Alliance (LTA), the national umbrella organization for land trusts, is engaged in a vigorous response, working with a coalition of national conservation leaders and allies including the Aquidneck Land Trust. But to succeed, we need the help of every friend.
The Joint Committee has proposed that deductions for Conservation Easements be limited to 33% of appraised value and that no deductions be allowed for the donation of a Conservation Easement on land used for a personal residence.
The Committee also proposes changing the deductions associated with donations or bargain sales of land by limiting such donations to the owner,s ³basis² that is, the cost of the land plus any capital improvements made over the years.
If enacted, these proposals would severely set back our conservation work. Saving land is often the primary motivation for donating a Conservation Easement, but we know that tax deductions enable many more people to donate.
You must act today, because the Aquidneck Land Trust depends on the tax incentives the Joint Committee on Taxation has attacked. Letters and calls to our U.S. Senators and Representatives asking them to help in fighting these proposals are essential. Our local opinion does count! Draft letters and more information are on the LTA web site at www.lta.org. Contact information for Rhode Island,s U.S. Congressional Delegation. (left)
Make a difference today and help support the Aquidneck Land Trust as it works to make a lasting difference here on Aquidneck Island!
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