Evaluating conservation easements' role in protecting habitat agricultural landscapes

Keywords: Conservation policy, Agricultural landscapes, environmental geography, Land use and land cover change
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 12

Abstract

In the 1980s, two important shifts in US policy began to prioritize private land conservation over publicly protected areas (PPA). These policies were the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the change in the tax code that define conservation easements (CE) as a charitable donation. Both have been studied separately to understand their impact on conservation. Research has shown environmental benefits of CRP can be temporary and lost if farmers place land back into production once their contract expires. CEs have been found to enhance conservation efforts in the western US , but there are few studies that investigate this in the US Corn Belt. This paper evaluates the interplay between PPAs, CEs, and CRP would more accurately depict the impact of PLC in the Midwest. Using Iowa as a case study, I plan to investigate the impact that CEs and CRP have had on land cover change in the first 30 years of their existence while also comparing changes to PPAs. This presentation provides the preliminary results of this research.