What is a conservation easement, anyway?
You’ll often read that land trusts like the Land Conservancy work with local landowners to preserve land through the use of conservation easements. Ever wonder what exactly is a conservation easement?
Simply put, a conservation easement is a legal document that enables a landowner to preserve land in perpetuity while maintaining ownership and control of the land in the present. While each easement document is unique and most are quite long and complex, at bottom all share a few key ingredients:
Conservation objectives that clarify what it is about the land that the landowner wishes to preserve. These may include, for example, maintaining a stream’s water quality, protecting natural habitat, preventing soil erosion or depletion, preserving a viewscape, or ensuring that the land remains in agricultural use.
Restrictive covenants that support these conservation objectives. For example, if the conservation objective is to maintain a stream’s water quality, the easement may restrict building or logging within 100 feet of the stream. If the conservation objective is to preserve the land’s agricultural character, the easement may restrict land development except for limited agricultural structures.
Permitted uses that reflect the landowner’s current or future needs regarding the land. For example, the landowner may want to reserve a future home site for an adult child, or an acre of road frontage for a farm stand.
Baseline documentation that describes the current state of the land. This documentation provides a basis for comparison should we need to dispute future changes to the land should they violate the easement’s restrictions.
The conservation objectives, restrictive covenants, permitted uses, baseline documentation—and any further information that may or may not be required by a funding source, if any—are incorporated into a comprehensive easement document, which is filed at the county recorder of deeds office. Once the document is filed, the easement is officially granted to the Land Conservancy, giving us the responsibility and legal authority to uphold the easement’s objectives and stipulations, in perpetuity.
It’s important to remember that even after the easement is filed, the landowner remains in control of the land and may continue to use it, pass it on to heirs, or even sell it—as long as the easement terms are honored. If the terms are violated, whether by the original landowner or by subsequent landowners, as the holder of the easement, we’re legally bound to take action to enforce the easement terms. For this reason, it’s crucial that we both carefully weigh the conservation value of a piece of land before we agree to hold its easement, and that we work with each landowner to develop as thorough and comprehensive an easement document as possible, to guide us as we continue to monitor the easement long into the future.
Got more questions about easements? Contact us here.