Article: How the US Tax Code Can Save Our Most Endangered Species Part I: A Survey of Conservation Easement Law and How the Tax Code Helps Private Landowners Make the Most Beneficial Impact to Our Most Threatened Species

Elizabeth M. Hughes recently published an article, How the US Tax Code Can Save Our Most Endangered Species Part I, ABA Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Journal, 2023. Provided below is an introduction to the Article:

Ecologists around the world acknowledge that a single organism’s extinction affects other organisms in the ecosystem and that the loss of even one species can start a harmful chain reaction affecting the environment as a whole. To address environmental and conservation goals in the United States, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, which was designed to promote the recovery of threatened and endangered species and to prevent extinction. See Benefits of Conserving Endangered Species, FEMA (Apr. 1, 2022), https://bit.ly/3jlNzRA. Over 2,300 species of wildlife and plants that Congress has determined to be “of aesthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value to the Nation and its people” are listed on the ESA. Id. The ESA has recognized that one of the most effective ways to protect the threatened and endangered species in the United States is to protect and conserve the “critical habitat” on which these species depend. Id.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2023/03/article-how-the-us-tax-code-can-save-our-most-endangered-species-part-i.html