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special attention towards the goal of preservation and that LTC,
the largest membership-supported nonprofit organization in
northern Michigan, has agreed through the conservation easements
to attempt to preserve those species by giving them that special
attention.
We apply the plain meaning of the words “habitat” and
“community” to interpret them for purposes of the statute and the
regulations. Cf. Venture Funding, Ltd. v. Commissioner, 110 T.C.
236, 241-242 (1998), affd. without published opinion 198 F.3d 248
(6th Cir. 1999); Trans City Life Ins. Co. v. Commissioner, 106
T.C. 274, 299 (1996). A habitat denotes “The area or environment
where an organism or ecological community normally lives or
occurs” or “The place where a person or thing is most likely to
be found.” American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
786 (4th ed. 2000); see also 7 C.F.R. sec. 636.3 (2002)
(“Wildlife habitat means the aquatic and terrestrial environments
required for wildlife to complete their life cycles, including
air, food, cover, water, and spatial requirements.”). A
community may be defined in this context as “A group of plants
and animals living and interacting with one another in a specific
region under relatively similar environmental conditions.”
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 374.
The encumbered shoreline fits those definitions of “habitat”
and “community”. In its natural undeveloped state, it is a
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