Local Couple's Land Donation Dohe|rcesAngulllaBrook Preserve 

By Jean Fiore 

NORTH STONINGTON -Peterand Virginia Coope's decision to donate a small tract 
of landalong the Anguilla Brook corridot to Avalonia Land Conservancy-a laad trust 
primarily servingsoutheastemComecticut-has fu*her enhanced the Anguilla Brook 

Prcserve. 

While tlle couple resides in Mystic, their recently donated land lies in North Stonington. 
TheCoope Tract is a g.Gacrelot locatedjust southof Route 184 and slightly west of 
Norlh Anguilla Road. The tmrt consists of red maple, ash tulip and oak forest and 
includesa small freshwater pond.The lot is open ro public accessfrom both roads for 

non-motorizeduse, 8s are most conservation arcas. 

Accordiog to Avalonia Land Conservancy President Anne Nalwalk, several otler 
donated tacts of land exist along this corridor,comprising the Alguilla Brook Preserve. 

Land husts like Ava.lonia are pfivate,non-profit organizations dedicatedto land 
conservation.Such tusts protectnatural areas and preserveopen spac€ for perpetuity. 
While lhes€organizationssometimespurchaseland deshable for protection,donations 

arepreferred. 

Moreover,concem for land conservation ttanscetds fuBncial status. You need not be a 
wealthy Wall Street fina[cier to care about land cons€rvation. A new federal law that 
we[t into effect in August 2006 makes land cotservationanenticingoptionfor all due to 
its associated tax dief. 

The Pensioo ProtecXion Act of2006 (PublicLaw 109-280|-which PresidentBush 
sigled into law or August 17,2006*includes new ta\ incantives to encowage grcater 
charitatrle contributions, including the fust major ilcome tax incentives for land 
conservationsince I 980. 

P.L. 109-280 raises the charitable deduction limit from 30 percentofadjustedgross 
furcometo 50 percentofadjustedgrossincomefor qualifiedconservationcontributions. 
The charitable deduction limit is raised to 100 percentofadjustedgrcssincomefor 
eligible farmersand ranchers, providedthat such contribution does not preventthe use of 
the donated land for farming or ranching purposes. 
Those consid€dlg a conservation gift to a land trust such as Avalonia,who wish10 take 

advantageofthese new tax incentives, shouldact now as the incentives are effective oaly 
for conhibutions madeduring2006and 2007. The incentives are set to expire at the eod 
of December. 

\Vhile new legislation to extend thes€ incentives is currently being brought forrrard in 
Congress,passageis not c€rtain. 


Accordingto the official u/ebsite ofthe Connectiaut Depafiment ofEnvironmental 
Plotectio4 there arc I l5 land tusts in Conn€clicut proteatingmore thao 62,000 acres of 
openspace.AvaloniaLandConsewancy is the steward for morcthan2,000 aqes in 
southeastemComecticut and on two islands: Sandy Point, RI, and South Dumpling, N,Y. 

TheStateof ColrEcticut has two open spare programs:the Open Spaca and Watershed 
LandAcquisitioo GrantProgranLand the Recreatioo and Nanral HelitageTrust 
Progran. lnformatiotr about theseprogramsto pwchaseopen space is av&ilable online at 
www.ci.gov/dep.