Assets to Acres (or, how do you turn a house into a forest?)

Most people know that the Forest Society accepts donations of land and conservation easements – gifts that protect our forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, and fields for future generations.

But did you know that the Society also accepts gifts of other real estate? Many donors who cherish the New Hampshire landscape and want to contribute to its protection choose to give a house, cottage, or parcel of land that they no longer need or want to maintain to the Forest Society.

The donor of the real estate can qualify for an income tax deduction based upon the appraised value of the donation.

With the donor’s permission to sell the donated property, the Forest Society can convert the value of that real estate “asset” into protected “acres.” Think of it as turning a house into a forest.

The sale proceeds can be earmarked to support our land protection mission. In this way, each donated asset enables the Forest Society to strategically protect more land with special natural resource values.

So how does this work? How does the Forest Society use the money from selling my donated real estate?

Here’s where the money goes:

Land Action Fund

The Forest Society’s Land Action Fund is a special fund reserved for the purchase of land and conservation easements. Often the Forest Society has the opportunity to conserve land with outstanding natural resources, such as unique ecological communities, important wildlife habitats, ground and surface waters, and well-managed farms and forests.

Unfortunately, the owners of such important properties cannot afford or are unwilling to donate either their land or a conservation easement.

Sometimes the Forest Society must purchase land or a conservation easement in order to protect the property’s exceptional natural resources.

Such purchases require money. The Forest Society seeks to raise that money from local donors and state and national grants, but this process takes time. And sometimes, we must act quickly.

In these cases, the Forest Society’s Land Action Fund can help provide the capital needed to take the property off the market while the Forest Society and its partners raise the funding needed to ensure the parcel’s permanent protection. Sometimes the Land Action Fund is essential to filling a gap between the cost of a property and the amount that can be raised through a fundraising campaign.

Dozens of important conservation lands have already been protected through the use of the Land Action Fund, including the Lamprey River Forest in Epping, the Hebron Town Forest, the Moose Mountain Reservation in Middleton and Brookfield, and the Harrigan old growth tract in Columbia.

Stewardship Endowments

The Forest Society owns over 160 reservations and holds conservation easements on over 100,000 acres. Both the land we own and the easements we hold require long-term stewardship. The Forest Society has established two special endowments to meet this need: the Conservation Easement Stewardship Endowment and the Reservation Stewardship Endowment.

The Forest Society uses monies from its Conservation Easement Stewardship Endowment to ensure that the land on which it holds conservation easements remains in the undeveloped state that the original landowner sought to preserve. Funding from the Reservation Stewardship Endowment is used to maintain and manage the Forest Society’s reservations and ensure our exemplary stewardship continues into the future..

Our Endowments ensure that we can always monitor and enforce our conservation easements and manage the land that the Forest Society owns to the high standards our members and donors have come to expect.

Want to know more?

Call or write Susanne Kibler Hacker, vice president for development, or Paul Doscher, vice president for land conservation, at 603-224-9945. Susanne or Paul will answer your questions and, if desired, arrange for a staff member to visit your property.