I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2771
To amend the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 to authorize
States to approve certain organizations to acquire, hold, and manage
conservation easements under the Forest Legacy Program, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL9, 2025
Mr. G
ARAMENDI(for himself, Mr. CALVERT, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. HARDERof
California, Mr. M
ULLIN, and Mr. COSTA) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978
to authorize States to approve certain organizations to
acquire, hold, and manage conservation easements under
the Forest Legacy Program, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Forest Legacy Man-4
agement Flexibility Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. AUTHORITY OF STATES TO ALLOW QUALIFIED OR-1
GANIZATIONS TO ACQUIRE, HOLD, AND MAN-2
AGE CONSERVATION EASEMENTS UNDER 3
THE FOREST LEGACY PROGRAM. 4
(a) S
TATEAUTHORIZATION.—Section 7 of the Coop-5
erative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 6
2103c) is amended— 7
(1) in subsection (l)— 8
(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘sub-9
section (m)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (o)’’; 10
and 11
(B) in paragraph (3)— 12
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 13
‘‘the State of Vermont’’ and inserting ‘‘any 14
State’’; and 15
(ii) in subparagraph (B)(ii), in the 16
matter preceding subclause (I), by striking 17
‘‘of Vermont’’ and inserting ‘‘involved’’; 18
(2) by redesignating subsection (m) as sub-19
section (o); and 20
(3) by inserting after subsection (l) the fol-21
lowing: 22
‘‘(m) T
HIRD-PARTYCONSERVATIONEASEMENTS.— 23
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—At the request of a State, 24
the Secretary shall authorize the State to approve el-25
igible qualified organizations to acquire, hold, and 26
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manage conservation easements to carry out activi-1
ties under the Forest Legacy Program. 2
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to acquire, 3
hold, and manage a conservation easement under 4
this subsection, a qualified organization shall dem-5
onstrate to the Secretary the abilities necessary to 6
acquire, monitor, and enforce interests in 7
forestland— 8
‘‘(A) consistent with the Forest Legacy 9
Program; and 10
‘‘(B) in accordance with the applicable as-11
sessment of need submitted to the Secretary by 12
the State in which the conservation easement is 13
located. 14
‘‘(3) R
EVERSION.—If the Secretary or a State 15
determines a condition described in paragraph (4) is 16
met with respect to a conservation easement— 17
‘‘(A) all right, title, and interest of the 18
qualified organization in and to the conserva-19
tion easement shall terminate; and 20
‘‘(B) all right, title, and interest in and to 21
the conservation easement shall revert to the 22
State or, if approved by the State, another 23
qualified organization determined eligible by the 24
Secretary under paragraph (2). 25
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‘‘(4) CONDITIONS FOR REVERSION .—A condi-1
tion described in this paragraph is, with respect to 2
a conservation easement acquired, held, and man-3
aged by a qualified organization, any of the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘(A) The qualified organization is unable 6
to carry out the responsibilities of the qualified 7
organization under the Forest Legacy Program 8
with respect to the conservation easement. 9
‘‘(B) The conservation easement has been 10
modified in a way that is inconsistent with the 11
purposes of the Forest Legacy Program or the 12
applicable assessment of need described in para-13
graph (2)(B). 14
‘‘(C) The conservation easement has been 15
conveyed to another person (other than a quali-16
fied organization determined eligible by the Sec-17
retary under paragraph (2) and approved by 18
the State). 19
‘‘(n) Q
UALIFIEDORGANIZATIONDEFINED.—In this 20
section, the term ‘qualified organization’ means an organi-21
zation that— 22
‘‘(1) is a qualified organization, as defined in 23
section 170(h)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 24
1986; 25
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‘‘(2) is organized for, and at all times since the 1
formation of the organization, has been operated 2
principally for one or more of the conservation pur-3
poses described in section 170(h)(4)(A) of such 4
Code; 5
‘‘(3) has not been the subject of any criminal 6
or civil enforcement action taken by the Attorney 7
General of the United States or the Commissioner of 8
the Internal Revenue Service pertaining to the chari-9
table donation of conservation easements under such 10
Code; and 11
‘‘(4) has been awarded, and at all times there-12
after maintained, accredited status by the Land 13
Trust Accreditation Commission, or if such Commis-14
sion ceases to exist, a successor organization that of-15
fers substantially similar accreditation and is ap-16
proved by the Secretary for purposes of this sec-17
tion.’’. 18
(b) T
ECHNICALCORRECTIONS.—Section 7 of the Co-19
operative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 20
2103c) is further amended— 21
(1) in subsection (i), by striking ‘‘subsection 22
(b)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsection (c)’’; 23
(2) in subsection (l)(3)(B)(i)(II), by inserting 24
‘‘and’’ after the semi-colon at the end; and 25
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(3) in the header of subsection (o), as redesig-1
nated by this section, by striking ‘‘A
PPROPRIATION’’ 2
and inserting ‘‘A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIA-3
TIONS’’. 4
Æ
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