Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity - Environmental ...

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Post-Closing Easement Stewardship Files
Post-closing work includes all the steps necessary for the perpetual
stewardship of the conservation easement, including maintenance of
landowner relations and tracking changes in landownership, annual
monitoring of the easement, keeping track of approvals and the exercise
of rights reserved under the easement, and addressing amendment
and violation issues. At minimum you must be able to track:
• Changes in landownership and current contact information for
all owners
• Changes to the land (both natural and manmade)
• Approvals of exercise of reserved rights, answers to landowners’
inquiries and details about any easement interpretations,
amendments or violations
To facilitate tracking, you may wish to create two distinct divisions
within the post-closing or stewardship folder:
Essential documents generated at closing
• The recorded conservation easement
• The baseline documentation report
• The easement map or survey
• Any critical correspondence interpreting the conservation easement
or approving the exercise of a reserved right, resolving a
violation or other activity
• The appraisal
• IRS Form 8283 (if the easement was a donation or bargain sale)
• Landowner names and contact information
• Landowner contact preferences, if known
Subsequent Stewardship Activities
• Monitoring reports
• Amendments (if applicable)
• Grant or legal agreements (if applicable)
• Violation resolution
• New landowner names and contact information
• Other documents, including management plans or environmental
inventories. Your land trust will have a variety of additional
documents unique to your region, landowners, mission
and resource base for which you will need to determine if they
are essential to the perpetual stewardship of an easement and,
thus, kept as a part of the post-closing records.
Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity