Managing Conservation Easements in Perpetuity - Environmental ...

The principles underlying TNC’s records retrieval policy highlight
important issues that are relevant to land trusts of all sizes.
Cost is a factor if you use a professional storage facility, so take that
into account when devising your land trust records storage system.
Records management is a series of tradeoffs in assessing risk and
capacity; therefore, your land trust needs to consider costs as well as
access and security.
Designate a records manager. Regardless of the size of the land trust,
one person should be responsible for keeping the organization’s documents
organized.Too often organizations implement a system, only to
have it deteriorate because no one was responsible for keeping track of
who took what document and where it was taken.
Create a tracking system for checking out permanent stored files, and
make sure the records manager follows up on documents removed
from storage.This system must be managed in a way that is reasonable
for your land trust.
Staff and volunteers will need to have emergency access to records on
occasion. Agree on what constitutes an emergency so that people plan
ahead to the fullest extent possible.
Finally, think about the length of time you want permanent records to
be out of storage.The point of keeping permanent records off-site is to
keep them safe. If you think you will need them longer than a day or
two, then have the records manager copy or scan the documents you
need and return the permanent records to off-site storage promptly.
Managing Records for Litigation
Most conservation easements created in the United States are written
to be perpetual in duration. Upholding this promise of perpetuity
means land trusts must prepare for the future so that their successors
have the tools they need to enforce or defend the conservation easements
in court. All land trusts should manage their records so that
they can minimize an opposing attorney’s challenges to their documents’
admissibility as evidence in future legal proceedings. Consider
taking samples of your conservation easements, baseline documentation
report, monitoring reports, maps, photos and approval letters
to a litigator for a full review with an eye toward admissibility and
Recordkeeping 61
Every land trust should designate
one person who is responsible for
records management.
Consider taking samples of your
conservation easements, baseline
documentation report, monitoring
reports, maps, photos and
approval letters to a litigator for
a full review with an eye toward
admissibility and credibility. He
or she should also review your
tracking, storage and management
systems, both electronic
and paper.