17.1 Preamble

The Governors are concerned about the growing challenges facing both state and federal agencies in managing and protecting lands within their borders. As the United States' diverse population rapidly expands, Governors nationwide are addressing the issue of how best to use America's land while preserving community character and protecting environmental health. Governors are aware that the challenges facing natural resource managers vary across states and regions, but all require attention and proper support.

States play an increasingly important role in fostering smart, long-term planning decisions with federal and local governments. In some cases, land management decisions and various programmatic requirements have stimulated and perpetuated patterns of growth that are counter to long-term sustainability. The Governors urge the federal government to support state efforts to develop and implement long-term, sustainable land use initiatives.

The nation's Governors also recognize that critical issues face our national forests and public lands, including the declining health of our forests, management costs, the potential for catastrophic fire, the economic health of communities surrounded by public land, and questions about the appropriate level of resource conservation. Costs to the federal government for the management of unconsolidated public lands can be high, often exceeding any public benefit that may be realized.

In many areas, fragmented land ownership patterns lead to inefficient management of both public and nonpublic lands. Isolated federal lands can be costly to manage and provide little benefit to the public, while nonfederal inholdings located within national parks, forests, and monuments can detract from the appropriate use and management of those special areas. The consolidation of land holdings through voluntary exchanges, acquisitions, and disposals in areas where fragmented ownership patterns create management inefficiencies should be encouraged. Congress and the Administration should pursue meaningful land exchange reform in order to facilitate land tenure adjustments, which will allow both states and the federal government the opportunity to accomplish their respective land management objectives.

17.2 State Role

Many states have the capability to provide land management activities on federal lands. In many instances, activities on federal lands have a direct impact on adjacent private/state lands. For example, fires starting on federal lands can easily spread to areas under state and/or local responsibility. States, working with the federal government, local governments, and private interests, should identify lands that could be consolidated to create more efficient land ownership patterns and promote the appropriate management of all land resources.

The Governors are sensitive to the prerogatives of local governments and their interactions with private property owners in land-use decisions. The Governors support a comprehensive and long-term approach that increases the factors considered in local land-use planning. Such approaches should foster increased communication among levels of government without infringing on the role that local governments rightfully have in making decisions about their own communities.

17.3 Federal Role

Congress and the Administration should actively pursue new partnership arrangements with those states that possess the capability to provide some or all of the necessary management and protection activities. In addition, both Congress and the Administration should take action that will lead to the creation of more manageable land ownership patterns through disposal of nonessential federal land and the promotion of exchanges that consolidate land ownership. The Governors urge Congress, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management to develop experimental or pilot arrangements with receptive states in order to gain a better understanding of the potential costs and benefits of such efforts. In addition, Congress should provide legislative direction to the Administration requiring that federal land management plans consider the impact of federal actions on inheld or adjacent state lands and resources, and that the plans offer specific alternatives to address the impacts.

While Governors believe that hosting federal public land has many positive effects, it also carries a significant economic impact on local governments and states. For a time, these effects were partly reconciled by the use of Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) and county payments, which were most recently delivered by the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act. Governors urge Congress to honor long-standing commitments to public lands areas across all the states, and realize that additional changes to federal law may be needed to fully balance the needs of the states with the needs of federal lands.

In addition, Congress and the Administration should support state efforts to encourage smart growth and preserve open space. These goals could be accomplished through emphasizing mixed land use; preserving open space, farmland, and critical environmental areas; and providing a variety of transportation choices.

17.3.1 Impact of Federal Decisions. The Governors believe it is essential that the federal government work closely with states and local governments to address any unintended consequences that federal environmental programs and policies may have with regard to affected state lands and resources, state and local land-use policies, urban redevelopment, and community revitalization efforts. Specific attention should be given to the effects of federal policies and programs that may be contrary to state land management objectives; state and local land-use policies and goals, including economic development programs; transportation programs; the location of federal facilities; mining activities; and environmental programs, such as brownfields redevelopment, total maximum daily loads, air quality, and environmental justice. Policies that prevent urban and suburban deterioration and the resulting loss of tax dollars must be encouraged.

The Governors also believe that the federal government should work together with the states and local governments to reduce potential conflict between expanding development near federal military installations and the activities on the base. Incompatible development, often called encroachment, may threaten public safety as well as the ability of the base to carry out its mission. Governors support states, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the military services in taking actions to assist local governments in developing and implementing better long-term planning for compatible land uses near military bases, particularly air fields, training facilities, routes, and ranges. The aim is not to prevent growth or limit any state or local authority, but to encourage land uses that avoid encroachment and are consistent with both the scope of military activities at a particular base and with the needs and safety of the neighboring community.

17.4 Utility of Conservation Easements and Recommendations for Reform

Governors oppose any effort to reduce or eliminate the federal income tax deduction for conservation easements. Over the past decade, easements have facilitated protection for millions of acres of land across the country, which are important historically, recreationally, and environmentally. Governors are confident that a significant portion -of this land would not have been protected in the absence of easements.

Using easements to protect land accomplishes land conservation and the protection of working lands at a fraction of the price of purchasing the land with public funds. Enforcing conservation easements requires a small fraction of the management costs and responsibilities associated with outright public ownership. Land protected by easements remains in private hands and does not require public funds for maintenance or ownership liability, which also allows land to remain on county tax rolls. Easements have a significant role in bringing landowners together around a common vision for the future of important areas. The process of obtaining easements entails an assessment of the value of natural resources on the land in question and the threats they face, thus encouraging landowners to join together to voluntarily limit their own uses of land for the greater good. This happens much less often when the tool at hand is government regulation.

Governors believe the best solution to curbing abuses to this tax incentive would be to establish a system of review to ensure that easement appraisals are accurate rather than simply eliminating this effective mechanism for achieving voluntary and private conservation. On January 27, 2005, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) staff published "Options to Improve Tax Compliance and Reform Tax Expenditures," which included recommendations that could serve to undermine the future of open space and wildlife conservation in the United States. Specifically, the JCT staff had two recommendations: reducing deductions for conservation easements from 100 percent of fair market values of the easement to 33 percent of the easement's appraised value; and eliminating deductions for conservation easements on land containing the personal residence of the donor. Governors believe that these recommendations are a response to some individual abuses of the tax benefits related to putting easements on private property, and support strengthening the reforms that would ensure that easement appraisals are accurate rather than simply eliminating this effective mechanism for achieving voluntary and private conservation.

Time limited (effective Winter Meeting 2008–Winter Meeting 2010).
Adopted Winter Meeting 1996; reaffirmed Winter Meeting 1998; revised Winter Meeting 2000; reaffirmed Winter Meeting 2002 and Winter Meeting 2004; revised Winter Meeting 2006, Winter Meeting 2007, and Winter Meeting 2008.