A Conservation Easement is a voluntary agreement between and landowner and the "holder" of the conservation easement, often a land trust, that permanently protects the property from subdivision and certain types of development in order to protect its conservation values.
Conservation easements can be an important tool to support the future protection and generational transfer of your land. You may benefit from a conservation easement in one or more of the following ways:
A conservation easement (CE) is a legally binding agreement that lasts in perpetuity. The easement itself is specific to the stewardship practices and identified conservation values of each individual property. The property remains privately owned but the CE becomes part of the property title and is held, "in trust" by a qualified organization, often a land trust. The land trust will monitor the property to ensure the conservation values are upheld. A conservation easement can be donated (the value of which is deductible from income taxes), it can be sold to a conservation funding agency, or could be sold at a "bargain sale" which provides both income and potential tax savings.
There are a variety of state and federal conservation programs that can be used for conservation easement projects including:
A property that is unencumbered by a conservation easement could be considered to have the "full value" of the property and all of its associated assets (e.g. timber) and rights. A qualified appraiser can evaluate actual or anticipated conservation easement restrictions to determine what the "restricted value" of the property will be after the conservation easement is in place. The difference between the full value of the property (“before CE” value) and the restricted value (“after CE” value) represents the value of the conservation easement.