On Friday December 14, the U.S. Senate will pass its version of a new Farm Bill that will include provisions that: permanently extend the new tax incentive for conservation easement donations, and  make the Farmland Protection Program and the Grasslands Reserve Program work better for land trusts. Final approval depends on a House-Senate conference that will probably take place in January, 2008. Check our website for the latest news – and what you can do to help!

Colorado's newspapers continue to cover investigations by the state and by the IRS of conservation easement donations in Colorado. The Alliance has been working closely with the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts to help shape how the media handles this story. On Monday the Denver Post ran an excellent editorial, with a message we support: that the state is right to crack down on abusers, while supporting Colorado’s conservation easement program as one that has very successfully protected important conservation lands. Read the editorial

The State of Texas wants to sell a public wilderness area, the 9,270-acre Christmas Mountains Ranch, to the highest private bidder before the end of the year. Covenants held by The Conservation Foundation on the land require approval of any sale to a party other than federal or state parks. The National Park Service (NPS) wants to acquire the property, but the Texas Land Commissioner has declared the covenants unenforceable, and won't sell the Christmas Mountains to the NPS unless they allow hunting. Public outcry caused the auction to be delayed until after Christmas. Read more about the issue’s media coverage as negotiations continue.

The end of the year crunch is here and many land trusts will be finalizing conservation easements in the next few weeks. Here is a sample easement donation pre-closing checklist (MS Word) from the Vermont Land Trust, part of Standard 9: Ensuring Sound Transactions. Find this and many other great resources on LTAnet, our members-only digital library.

Mark Patrick, of the Washtenaw Land Trust in Michigan, answers the question, “What if poet Robert Frost had been a land trust volunteer?”: “Whose woods these are I think I know His house is in the village though He will not see me standing here To watch his woods fill up with snow. Review Comment: It sounds like you’re not sure if you’re on the protected property or not. Don’t you have your GPS unit with you?...” Read the rest of the poem, and find other musings by land trust folks on a blog that Mary Sojourner started after her Rally seminar, “Harnessing the Power of Literature for Conservation” with Tom Bailey and Dr. Nora Rubinstein.

Calling all conservation community leaders! The Kinship Conservation Fellows program is a month-long intensive fellowship, which equips select career conservationists with effective tools for solving environmental problems through market-based principles. Applications for summer 2008 are due January 31, 2008. Apply now

For any land trust that does mailings, the Nonprofit Times reported on some good news - the U.S. Postal Service announced it won't push forward with a rate case to increase postal fees. Instead, they will proceed with the new pricing regulations set by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, which caps future price increases at the rate of inflation. Learn more

Read highlights from this year, as the Alliance celebrated our 25th anniversary, and see our top priorities for 2008. Also see photos from the past year including those from land trusts and gatherings of land trust professionals across the country. We thank you for all of your hard work and tireless efforts for land conservation!