Conservation Easement Design in the American West
Anthony Anella and Jack Wright

Excerpt from Program:
"Due to an aging population of ranchers in the American West, a significant amount of private land will change hands over the next 10-20 years. This workshop is vital and timely because it will place clear, concise information about conserving ranches in the hands of the ranch families - making choices that will decide the fate of Western ranch country. Based on a book of the same title by the co-presenters, the workshop will focus on how to voluntarily save ranchland from destructive development. The emphasis will be on the greatly expanded conservation easement incentives contained in the 2006 Tax Act, the analysis of land, based on the landowner's conservation priorities, and the decisionmaking process of ranchers.

"Born and raised in Albuquerque, Anthony Anella spent his early summers working on farms and ranches in New Mexico. From that experience, he gained an abiding respect for the land and the people who earn their living on the land. He is the principal of Anthony Anella Architect AIA - www.anella.com, an award-winning practice dedicated to site-sensitive design and planning, and also a partner in Conservation Design Partners, www.conservationdesign.net, an Albuquerque group that specializes in conservation-based design and development. He is co-author, with Jack Wright of Saving the Ranch: Conservation Easement Design in the American West, Island Press (2004). He serves as secretary of the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Land Conservancy (NMLC), the state's only statewide land trust. He believes that good design is distinguished by the art of listening and by letting the land do most of the talking.

"Jack Wright is a Geographer whose research focuses on land conservation in the West. He earned his PhD in Geography from UC-Berkeley in 1990 and then joined the Department of Geography at New Mexico State University. Jack is the author of over 100 articles and four books on land conservation including Saving the Ranch: Conservation Easement Design in the American West (Island Press 2004). He serves as Chair of the New Mexico Land Conservancy, a state-wide land trust that holds conservation easements on 52,000 acres of ranch land, wildlife habitat, and open space. Over the past 30 years Jack has helped ranchers, farmers, and other landowners conserve over 280,000 acres using voluntary conservation easements."