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View Select Publications Related to Conservation Easements

Conservation Easements

Conservation easements, or conservation restrictions, are legally binding agreements between landowners and land trusts or government agencies that place limitations on private properties to protect the natural resources associated with the parcel. An easement is either donated or sold by the private landowner and restricts some uses of the land or prevents development from taking place.

Conservation easements protect land for future generations, yet they also allow owners to maintain many private property rights and live on and use their land. An easement targets only the property rights essential to the protection of specific conservation values, and each is individually tailored to meet the landowner's needs.

Conservation easements can be an important tool for protecting private lands and encouraging stewardship while providing landowners with income, and potential estate and tax benefits. The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups have pursued conservation easements for private lands for ecological, agricultural, and aesthetic reasons.

There are more than 1,260 land trusts in the United States, with more than 2.6 million acres protected by local and regional land trusts through conservation easements.

Links:

All links take you out of the ConserveOnline Library for Private Forest Landowners.

• Conservation Easements
• The Land Trust Alliance: Conservation Options for Landowners
• Conservation Easement FAQs