Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity - Environmental ...

Good relationships with landowners,
thorough baseline
documentation reports, annual
monitoring visits and strong
recordkeeping systems form the
foundation of successful and
permanent land protection.
Conservation easement monitoring
or annual visit: The land trust’s ongoing
inspection of land to determine
compliance with easement, visit with
the landowner and document the
organization’s findings. Monitoring
ensures the protection of the land’s
conservation values over time.
Stewardship: Those steps necessary
to preserve a conservation
easement forever, including the
creation of baseline documentation,
regular monitoring, landowner relations
including successor landowners,
addressing amendments and
enforcing easements.
Successor landowner: An owner
who acquired protected property
and was not the original grantor of
the conservation easement.
See volume two of the Land
Trust Alliance course “Nonprofit
Law and Recordkeeping for
Land Trusts” for guidance
on other aspects of land trust
recordkeeping.
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increasingly complex legal and regulatory land conservation environment?
What obligations does your land trust believe it has to the larger
community to balance community needs and conservation while still
upholding the integrity of the conservation easement and the original
owner’s intentions?
Good relationships with landowners, thorough baseline documentation
reports, regular (at least annual) easement monitoring visits and
sound recordkeeping systems are the foundation of your land trust’s
land protection efforts and fundamental to upholding its obligations.
As your land trust matures, you must also be prepared to address issues
such as amendments and violations quickly and appropriately. Putting
sound procedures and policies in place before encountering these difficult
situations is time well spent because you may prevent misunderstandings
or even litigation.
Developing and maintaining recordkeeping systems and policies can
be challenging. Doing the deal is fun, but the hard work of stewardship
is essential to ensure that future generations appreciate the land
you and the landowner worked so hard to save.This book addresses the
fundamentals of recordkeeping for conservation easement projects.
See volume two of the Land Trust Alliance course “Nonprofit Law
and Recordkeeping for Land Trusts” for guidance on other aspects of
land trust recordkeeping.
Guiding Principles
Meeting your land trust’s obligations to the public it serves means
planning thoughtfully both for today and tomorrow. Your land trust
should start with a strategic plan that describes what results your organization
wants to achieve through its conservation easement program.
From these results, the land trust can develop stewardship principles
that guide decisions regarding annual monitoring visits, recordkeeping
systems, amendment requests, conservation easement enforcement
and landowner relationships. All of your land trust’s programs, including
its conservation easement stewardship program, must comply
with all applicable laws, be consistent with Land Trust Standards and
Practices and support your organization’s mission. Land trusts should
routinely evaluate the goals and activities of their easement stewardship
programs to check for consistency with the organization’s mission
and revise those programs appropriately.
Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity