Murphy and Courtney celebrate land conservation wins for Connecticut

Connecticut lawmakers U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) recently celebrated several end-of-year wins for federal aid toward land conservation in their home state.

"I was very pleased to see so many important conservation initiatives addressed in the end-of-year agreement to fund the government and extend certain tax credits,” Courtney said. “From extending the Conservation Easement Tax Credit, to the reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund in the omnibus appropriations bill, Congress clearly showed that making targeted investments to preserve open space and protect our natural resources is a top priority.”

The Conservation Easement Tax Credit, which was permanently renewed, lets landowners voluntarily conserve their land as watersheds and farms while still maintaining their private property rights.

Included in the budget bill was increased funding for land conservation, specifically $900 million through Fiscal Year 2018 for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and $10 million for the Highlands Conservation program, which serves Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

“Today, we announced a pretty amazing set of wins for land conservation in Connecticut and across the country,” Murphy said. “I have been working on the issue of land conservation since my time in the U.S. House of Representatives as the chair of the Land Conservation Caucus, and I’ve never seen successes like we’ve achieved this year. The end of the year budget and tax bill will help preserve millions of acres of land across the country and will make Connecticut eligible to receive more federal land conservation funding to partner with state and private funds than ever before.”