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FROM PAGE ONE FROM PAGE 1 The desires to preserve open space and keep their land for farm uses, and to lower the estate taxes that will kick in when they die, have all been part of the Nutters' decision. Bob Nutter said that without the easements, he believes his heirs would have had no choice but to sell the land to cover the estate taxes. Easements lower the estate taxes because the land has been devalued, Brice said. Also, the value of such donated easements counts as a deduction from federal income taxes. That value can be calculated as the difference between the assessed value of the property in its current state and another assessment of the property as if it were fully developed. At the state -tax level, North Caroli- na has a program that gives landown- ers a tax credit of 25 percent of the donation's value. The credit is capped at $250,000 for an individual, and $500,000 for a corporation, Brice said. Brice described North Carolina's conservation tax- credit program as the most generous in the United States. But he also said the current state budget proposal calls for ending that program by 2003. He said Triangle Land Conservancy and other organizations are lobbying against that move. The Nutters have taken a phased approach to putting their land in con- servation easements, and they may do more easements in the future. But Bob Nutter also said that will depend on things like the future of North Car- olina's tax- credit program. "We just have to play it by ear as we go along, because [the government] keeps changing the rules all the time," he said. The Nutter property under ease- ments is partly connected to land near the Dairyland- Road- Dodsons Cross- roads intersection that owner Tim Tbben put under a conservation ease- ment last year. That land — about 143 acres — includes part of Pickards Mountain and is part of a 350 -acre tract that Tbben purchased in 1999. The 143 -acre portion is home to the THE CHAPEL HILL HERALD largest stand of chestnut oaks in Orange County, as well as the head- waters of Morgan Creek and a stretch of Cane Creek. Tbben made the easement agree- ment with the Raleigh -based Conser- vation Trust for North Carolina And nearby, Charles and Barbara Keith have donated a conservation easement to Triangle Land Conser- vancy on about 40 acres that are part of Pickard8 Mountain. The Keith fam- ily donated that easement in 1999 and may do more easements as well, Brice said. Toward Mebane, the Orange Coun- ty government reached its first agree- ment this spring for an easement, on about 70 acres on High Rock Road owned by the Walters family. As part of its Lands Legacy pro- gram, the county agreed to pay Victor Walters about $215,000 for the ease- ment, with a state grant covering half the cost.