Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity - Environmental ...

No amendment policy should be more permissive than these principles;
however, some land trusts may choose to adopt more strict
amendment guidelines. Keep in mind that these principles comprise
only part of the overall amendment policy; other parts of the policy
should be tailored by each land trust to its own organizational mission
and needs and the laws of the state in which the land is located.
The “Four Corners” Question
Suppose a landowner proposes an amendment to allow a new use on
easement land and, as part of the proposal, offers to place additional,
currently unprotected land under easement. This example is a classic
“four corners” situation. Should the land trust consider the benefits of
the additional land protection when assessing the potentially negative
effects of the proposed amendment on the conservation purposes of
the original easement?
The amendment principles generally allow appropriate flexibility for
land trusts to consider lands outside of the original easement as they
assess the effects of the amendment on the ground. Some land trusts
choose to limit amendment considerations to just the land encumbered
by the original easement (referred to as “within the four corners”
of the original conservation easement). The traditional and conservative
interpretation of the “four corners”question is that an amendment
must have a neutral or positive conservation result with respect to the
land inside the original easement boundaries. That is, as a land trust
weighs the potential positive and negative effects of a proposed amendment
on the conservation values of an easement property, it considers
the conservation result strictly within the four corners of the original
easement. A number of land trusts implement amendment policies
with this understanding. (See part six of Amending Conservation
Easements: Evolving Practices and Legal Principles for case studies illustrating
this issue.)
In contrast to the “four corners” perspective, some legal experts believe
that a land trust can, if it chooses and if certain conditions are met,
look beyond the original conservation easement and consider the
conservation benefits of additional land to be conserved outside of
the original easement (“outside the four corners”). Some land trusts
consider it appropriate to reduce restrictions on one parcel in exchange
for adding restrictions on an entirely unrelated parcel, but because this
approach is very risky, land trusts should only rarely consider granting
such a proposal and may need to seek attorney general or court
Amendments 183
Land trusts should incorporate
all seven amendment principles
into their easement amendment
policies.