Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity - Environmental ...

7.
Record the resolution and lessons learned
Record the events and learn from the result
Your land trust will want to learn from the violations it experiences.
You may find you can avoid, or at least mitigate, the severity of violations
in the future by adjusting your practices. In 2004 when the Land
Trust Alliance surveyed 105 land trusts about changes they made after
experiencing violations, 40 percent reported that they changed their
easement drafting,monitoring or violations policies and some reported
changes to all of those policies. The most common change was clarification
of easement documents. Land trusts also reported increasing
their efforts to notify new landowners of conservation easements,
to maintain good relationship with all landowners and to conduct
more frequent and thorough monitoring visits. Staff at one land trust
reported that two litigated violations could have been prevented by
better landowner relationships alone.
Collect what you learn from experiencing violations and from landowner
feedback. Analyze and discuss this information internally to
help improve project development, conservation easement drafting
and stewardship procedures. This information will also help you identify
trends and issues, and track the effectiveness of your organization’s
responses to easement violations.
Manage public relations
Addressing easement violations may require a land trust to deal with
media inquiries and public relations issues associated with the violation,
particularly if the violation winds up in court, or an aggressive
or disgruntled landowner publicly verbalizes his or her poor opinion
of the land trust’s enforcement measures. Every land trust’s violation
policy and procedures should determine in advance who will speak to
the press or public.
It is wise to always take the high road even in the case of an egregious
violation. Using an understated tone, a sympathetic manner and
presenting a forthright message will serve your land trust well. The
media and the public may not focus on details and nuances, so any
attempt to explain or defend your actions that turns on subtle details
may be lost. In addition, attempts by the land trust to pursue a conservation
easement violation in public can result in as much adverse
publicity for the land trust as for the violator. People in the community
may perceive your actions as an attack by a bureaucratic organization
on a hapless individual, or as an attempt by the state to usurp property
Violation Resolution and Easement Defense 295