Shenandoah Valley Fund

Working with our regional partners through the Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative (SVCC), the Alliance has created the Shenandoah Valley Fund. This revolving loan fund will assist landowners with gap funding to cover the costs of completing conservation easements on their land.

First, a  conservation easement is a voluntary agreement, established between a landowner and non-profit conservation organization or public agency, which places specific permanent restrictions on the use and development of a property. A landowner sometimes chooses to do this to preserve the environmental integrity of the land and/or because they want the parcel to remain intact as a legacy for generations to come.

For many landowners, at first glance, conserving their land can seem complicated and expensive. Transaction costs are increasingly a barrier to landowners who want to protect their properties with a conservation easement, especially since a lot of these costs require payment up-front before the monetary benefits of the easement kick in. Transaction can costs include:

The Shenandoah Valley Fund is a revolving loan fund, meaning that landowners borrow money to cover the above up-front costs with the intent of repaying the fund in a short time-frame, usually within a year. One of the many benefits of a conservation easement is the opportunity for tax credit, like Virginia’s Land Preservation Tax Credit, a transferable state income tax credit, currently equal to 40 percent of the fair market value of donated land or interest in land (conservation easement). These tax benefits provide landowners with a potential source of revenue with which to repay a loan.

The Alliance is proud to play a central role in providing access to the benefits of conservation easements for all landowners in the Valley. If you’re interested in more information on the Shenandoah Valley Fund, please reach out to Kevin at ktate [@] shenandoahalliance.org.