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Use Email Petition & Call Legislators

     

Support VA Conservation Reform Act with HB 1488

Paris Barns, involved in a long-running dispute concerning a conservation easement;
photo courtesy of Martha Boneta

 

UPDATEHouse Bill 1488 (HB 1488) passed the House and is going before the Virginia Agriculture Senate this Thursday, February 12 at 9 a.m.!

 

HB 1488 provides protections for landowners against abusive land trusts by providing accountability, standards and oversight.

 

Please send a message to senators with this Email Petition and follow up with a phone call!

 

Spread the word and pass on this alert!
 Item1
Take Action - Use Email Petition & Make Phone Calls

Please send a message to members of the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee via this Email Petition and ask them to support HB 1488.

 

To be most effective, please follow up any message with a phone call. See phone numbers below for the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources Committee.

 Item2
Talking Points
  • $100 million dollars each year of Virginia tax dollars pays for the Virginia Conservation Program; however, non-government organizations, like The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), have no oversight, accountability, transparency or standards.
  • Many farmers innocently place their properties in agricultural easements or purchase farms with pre-existing agricultural easements only later to find out they can't even have a dog house. Virginia's most famous farmer, Joel Salatin, wrote a very good article "Beware of those sincere sounding conservation easements" discussing the horrors of having a conservation easement.
  • These easements are intended for the public good and are a government created program that uses tax dollars and "tax credits". Virginia is one of the few states that can "sell" tax credits. Yet despite this public program, there is no transparency or standards. 
  • With one of these easements that are "forever" (and forever is a long time), anything can happen and change and terms can be interpreted differently. 
  • Currently if a dispute arises, the only option for a land owner is full blown litigation that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years. There is also NO TRANSPARENCY.
  • HB 1488 provides a land owner with a forum to have a dispute heard or a question asked for clarification. Makes sense, right? Not only is it good public policy but it provides for protections and accountability that currently do not exist.
 Item3
Members of the VA Senate Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources Committee

 

Sen. John Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake)

(804) 698-7514
 

Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria)

(804) 698-7530


Sen. Emmett Hanger (R-Mount Solon)

(804) 698-7524
 

Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke)

(804) 698-7537
 

Sen. Ryan McDougle (R-Mechanicsville)

(804) 698-7504
 

Sen. Don McEachin (D-Richmond)

(804) 698-7509


Sen. John Miller (D-Newport News)

(804) 698-7501


Sen. Frank Ruff (R-Clarksville)

(804) 698-7515
 

Sen. Bill Stanley (R-Moneta)

(804) 698-7520


Sen. John Watkins (R-Midlothian)

(804) 698-7510


Sen. Jennifer Wexton (D-Leesburg)

(804) 698-7533
 

For additional phone numbers for these and other VA Senate members, visit this telephone list

 


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