With growth and development exploding across the American West, a movement is flourishing to protect the landscapes that we all hold so dear. Local and national land trusts are at the forefront of this effort, and the conservation easement is the legal tool most often used to accomplish the preservation.

Mirr Ranch Group can provide you with experienced and qualified consultation on conservation easements. Ken Mirr is the President of the Board for the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, is a former public lands attorney, and has years of experience brokering deals where conservation easements are involved. This makes Mirr Ranch Group's conservation orientation and credibility undisputed in the ranch brokerage industry.

A conservation easement is a deed restriction arranged with and held in trust by an IRS-qualifying not-for-profit group or agency that limits some or all development on a property. In exchange for giving up these development rights, landowners can receive financial benefits such as federal income tax breaks, real estate tax reductions, estate tax benefits, and tax credits in Colorado. Well-crafted easements are typically flexible, allowing various continued land uses for a wide variety of landowners and do not require public access. Conservation easements are generally donated, however, on rare occasions they can be sold outright.

A conservation easement presents these often financial advantages for landowners:

• Federal income tax breaks
• Colorado conservation easement tax credits
• Real estate tax breaks
• Estate planning and family heritage preservation
• Land value increases due to adjacency to protected land
• Affordable farming & ranching land

Sometimes land trusts, national conservation groups, or landowners would like to protect a critical piece of land, but they do not possess the resources to do so. Because of the background and conservation expertise of our staff, Mirr Ranch Group has been able to develop a list of possible buyers who wish to acquire and ultimately protect land parcels with an easement. Mirr Ranch Group actively partners with national and local conservation groups to market their surplus holdings to qualified buyers and to find buyers for particular environmentally significant parcels in need of protection. Click here to view our current list of conservation properties for sale.

The Mirr Ranch Group staff has extensive experience with conservation easements from legal, tax, management, and ecological standpoints. Our expertise expedites and streamlines the process, often saving a landowner money and preventing headaches. Mirr Ranch Group can assist with these types of specific tasks and topics during the conservation easement process:

• Making the decision whether conservation easements are appropriate for a landowner's situation
• Navigating the actual easement process, which can be complex involving appraisers, accountants, lawyers, ecologists, and other professionals
• Marketing conservation-encumbered properties
• And finding conservation buyers.

For more information about Mirr Ranch Group's conservation easement services, please e-mail Ken Mirr at ken@mirrranchgroup.com, or call 303-623-4545 (office) or 303-888-0907 (cell).