Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity - Environmental ...

Land trusts may need to
rethink current funding mechanisms
to ensure the long-term
viability of their legal duty as
stewards “forever.”
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easement in this fund. Land trusts should not initiate litigation
without having in hand the minimum amount of money
recommended to fully fund litigation or a credible plan to
raise the necessary funds immediately.
If a land trust lacks sufficient funds to fully fund an enforcement
action, it needs a fundraising strategy and a board policy
committing funds to this purpose.
The Land Trust Alliance also found fairly consistent data regarding
the rate of litigated easement violations, and that the rate of litigated
easement violations will likely increase over time as more easements
change hands. In making its calculations, the Alliance defined a major
violation as one that will cost the land trust more than $2,500 to
resolve. For more information, see the research report, available on The
Learning Center (http://learningcenter.lta.org/library).
The results of the Alliance’s summer 2008 conservation defense
insurance survey and the 2004 Conservation Easement Violation and
Amendment Study both support these findings. Collectively, land trusts
experienced a steady increase in expenditures to enforce their easements.
The overwhelming majority, 87 percent, reported that in the
past five years they had experienced an increase in their expenses, while
only 12 percent said that enforcement expenses remained unchanged.
A single land trust reported enforcement costs decreasing in the same
period and no land trust characterized their expenses as decreasing
rapidly.
Of those land trusts reporting an increase in expenses, 44 percent indicated
financial resources expended to enforce conservation easements
have rapidly increased. Thus, land trusts may need to rethink current
funding mechanisms to ensure the long-term viability of their legal
duty as stewards “forever.”
Although these expenses are extremely difficult to predict, the Land
Trust Alliance has attempted to evaluate the rate of litigated violations
and their projected costs so that land trusts can better prepare for these
events. Many land trust practitioners agree that the violation rate will
most likely increase, especially as easement lands change hands and as
land trusts begin to visit conserved land more regularly and become
more experienced in identifying violations.
Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity