The following passsage is an excerpt from "Preserving Family Lands Book I: Essential Tax Strategies for the Landowner"

If you care about open space in this country today, if you care about wildlife habitat, productive farmland, ranchland, and forestland, or if you want to preserve a way of life, you need to know that this country is facing three major problems when it comes to the protection of important privately-owned land.

The first problem is the federal estate tax, and by now readers should understand that. I've said it before and I'll repeat it here: for the first time in the history of the United States, the family that just wants to leave its land to the children may not be able to do that any more. The land may have become so valuable it may have to be sold to pay the estate tax. John and Mary and Riverview and Bob and Sue and Diamond Farm are good examples of what I mean.

Here is the second problem. A number of years ago I attended a national conference in Montana, and a speaker from Montana had this to say.

"There are 90 million acres of land in Montana," he said, "and over the next fifteen to twenty years 30 million of those acres are going to change hands. That's because that's how much land we have that is owned by people who are an average age of 59 1/2."

That is really remarkable, I thought. And then I thought, you know, that's true not only in Montana, it's also true in Virginia . . . and New York . . . and Florida . . . and Colorado . . . and all over the United States. The principal private landowners in this country are older, 55 and older, even 65 and older. And over the next fifteen to twenty years, millions and millions of acres around the country are going to change hands, and potentially change use, as these older landowners plan for, or don't plan for, what's going to happen to their land.

The principal private landowners in this country are older. In New England, the average age of the woodlot owner is well over 60. In the Southeast, the average age of the private forestland owner is almost 70. I was told recently that one-third of the forestland owners in Oregon are over 75!! When you combine the threat of the estate tax with the demographics of this county, it becomes absolutely clear that millions and millions of acres of open space, wildlife habitat, farmland, forestland, wildlife corridors, watershed, and ranchland are at risk over the next few decades.

The third problem is what I call the "good help is hard to get" problem.

In every single community in this country, if you have a piece of land that you want to develop, an entire infrastructure exists to support you. There are attorneys, engineers, land use planners, surveyors, appraisers, and planning board or zoning commission members who know all about how to develop a piece of land. There is a whole support network of professionals and technicians who make a living doing real estate development. If you have a piece of land to develop, the question isn't "How can I find help?" If you have a piece of land to develop, the question is, "Let's see, of all of the available choices, who shall I choose to help me and to work with me?"

But consider this. In every single community in this country there are landowners who love their land and don't want to see that land developed. And most of them have absolutely nowhere to turn. In most communities around the country there are absolutely no professionals who understand how to protect a piece of land. In most communities around the country there are no attorneys, no accountants, no "planners," no zoning commission members, no appraisers, no real estate brokers, no advisors at all who understand the concept of private land protection and how to go about that.

On one hand, we have a real estate development infrastructure permanently in place and highly visible after two hundred years of real estate development in this country. On the other hand, a landowner with a farm, a ranch, working forestland, country property, and open space, has absolutely no idea where to turn for help.

This must change.

Consider this. What if instead of owning Riverview John and Mary had a successful family business? Would John and Mary and their advisors have done some sophisticated tax, financial, and legal planning to get the family business through the transfer tax system to the children??? It's likely that there would be a shareholder agreement, buy-sell provisions for the stock, life insurance, a program of annual gifts of stock, and perhaps a stock recapitalization. In short, there is a whole array of entirely appropriate tools to keep that business intact and get it to the kids.

Why haven't John and Mary and their advisors done the same sort of sophisticated, aggressive, creative planning for Riverview??? Why haven't Bob and Sue done the planning for Diamond Ranch? "Succession planning for the business owner" is an accepted tax planning and financial planning discipline. For those of us who value open space, wildlife habitat, farmland, forestland, and ranchland, and the outdoor recreational opportunities that come with open land, I think it's time we begin to focus on tax, legal, and financial planning for family lands. It's time we begin to focus on "succession planning for the landowner."

That's why I wrote Preserving Family Lands: Book II. That book is not an "update" of this book, or a "revision." That book is the next book in the series, the book that introduces landowners and their advisors to a number of other planning techniques that can be used to help the family realize its goal of keeping the family's land intact.

The principal tool in the private landowner's toolbox is the conservation easement, but it is not the only tool. A planning strategy may include the use of a family limited partnership, a "generation-skipping trust," and possibly annual gifts to children and grandchildren. Often, too, more sophisticated planning involves the use of other forms of tax-advantaged charitable giving, including various forms of charitable trusts and family private foundations.

Preserving Family Lands: Book II covers a number of these subjects, and if you are interested in doing this planning, if you understand that "preserving family lands" means more than just conservation easements, I urge you to read "Book II." (There is an order form inside the back cover of this book.)

The purpose of this chapter is not to explain these tools. The purpose here is to make three points.

First, open space is threatened because of an aging population of landowners and the impact of high federal estate taxes.

Second, this is a problem that landowners can do something about.

Third, this is a problem that needs attention now. Awareness of these issues should force landowners to act, to do the planning, and to protect and preserve the open space that is so important to all of us.