Cooperative conservation with farmers and ranchers

With land values and crop prices increasing, landowners are finding it more and more difficult to protect their land and pocketbooks. In 2009, DU worked with members of Congress on two bills—one in the House and one in the Senate—to continue tax incentives that encourage landowners to conserve their land. Representatives Mike Thompson (CA) and Eric Cantor (VA) and Senators Max Baucus (MT) and Charles Grassley (IA) sponsored the bill to extend these incentives. For the latest information on these incentives and what you can do to help encourage Congress to extend them, visit www.ducks.org/taxes.

Another way that DU is promoting private land conservation is by working with Congress to develop concrete policies for the ecosystem services that conservation provides. Adopting management practices that provide cleaner air and water and protect against soil erosion benefits everyone, but incentives for landowners to adopt these practices are limited. There are several bills that would create these incentives for biological offsets for things like greenhouse gases that DU staff are following.