This beautiful property with its views of Cape Cod Bay, salt marsh, and barrier beach represents the quintessential -- and endangered -- Cape Cod. The site, once threatened with a 14-lot subdivision, now permanently secures a vital connection to a 110-acre conservation area, owned and managed jointly by the state, town, and a local land trust. The area offers important nesting habitat for a threatened turtle, the Northern Diamondback Terrapin.

Several private and public conservation partners worked with a conservation buyer, who purchased the 17 acres of pine-oak upland and 3 acre marsh. The property also included one small house. It was protected through the new owner's donation to the local land trust of 4 acres outright along with a 3-acre conservation easement next to the house, and his 'bargain sale' of 9 acres to the town as conservation land.

The buyer purchased the land for $875,000. In the end, he more than recouped his investment, receiving $380,000 from the 9-acre sale to the town, almost $300,000 from sale of two road-front lots, and another $300,000 for the partially restricted 4-acre lot and cottage, all offset by substantial income tax deductions resulting from his donations of the land and easement.

Forty-one acres of prime Connecticut Valley farmland were saved through a conservation real estate transaction. Located next to a 600-acre wildlife sanctuary, the land was purchased by the local land trust, which later retired the land's development rights by selling them to the state agriculture department. The Agricultural Preservation Restriction created through this sale means the land will remain as working farmland, rather than becoming a 12-lot subdivision.

The protected land was then traded to a 300-year old family farm, in a 'like-kind exchange' for a similar restriction on 80 acres of their home farm in another town. Using a like-kind exchange instead of a cash sale meant the family escaped most capital gains taxes. Just as important for an often cash-strapped business in an area with escalating land prices, the family farm was able to acquire the now-restricted 41 acre parcel for $95,000, rather than at its development value price of over $500,000.

Although at six acres this conservation buyer project was modest, it saved a roadside view treasured by many in a small hilltown in Western Massachusetts. One of a dedicated group of local conservationists purchased the parcel, threatened with development of at least two houses. They would have destroyed the view and blocked public access to 1400' along the bank of a Federally-designated 'Wild & Scenic River'. With the technical and modest financial help of two regional land trusts, a single homesite was created, located out of the viewshed of passersby, and away from the riverside. The eventual buyer of the homesite has accepted a conservation easement which protects the river and open field, and will enjoy not only a beautiful location, but also donated architectural services, and the long-lasting gratitude of the entire town.