Conservation Easements
A Tool for Preserving Working Landscapes
Springville conservation easement
What is a Conservation Easement?
A conservation easement is an agreement between a landowner and a qualified organization that establishes the future uses of a property, consistent with the landowner’s values. Essentially, conservation easements are voluntary restrictions on the use of privately owned land, generally designed to be appropriate to the specific circumstances and concerns of both the landowner and the easement holder. The Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT) works with landowners to design easement provisions allowing continued economic use of their land, while conserving the land’s important natural features. As a result, no two conservation easements are alike.
Conservation easements are based on the idea that when people own land, they own rights that go with the property – such as the right to graze cattle, hunt, erect a home, subdivide or extract minerals. By voluntarily limiting some of these activities, a conservation easement allows you as a landowner to retain private ownership while also achieving other goals, like protecting your family's viable ranching operation, preserving open space or conserving habitat for wildlife. Typically, a conservation easement limits subdivision and non-agricultural, commercial uses. Most conservation easements allow continued grazing, fencing, irrigation, hunting or other traditional land uses that are consistent with the conservation values of the property. Conservation easements do not require public access. As a legal agreement, a conservation easement is attached to the property’s deed and recorded with the county. Easements are granted in perpetuity, meaning that all future owners of the land must respect the uses set forth in the document.
Why Grant or Sell a Conservation Easement?
Landowners choose to donate or sell conservation easements for a variety of reasons. Often, the decision comes from the landowner’s connection to their land, and their desire to see it remain intact and used for agriculture, open space or wildlife habitat into the future. Many people also want to ensure that their children can inherit their property in its entirety. By reducing the land’s appraised value through a conservation easement, estate taxes may be lowered. This often means that the family can inherit the land without having to subdivide it to pay the estate tax. Conservation easements are powerful estate planning tools that can help keep land in the family. In some cases, SRT can help landowners protect their property by purchasing conservation easements and then holding the title to these easements. While available funds are limited, SRT has been successful at raising the necessary funds for properties with considerable natural resource values. There are other financial benefits as well. Landowners can make a charitable contribution of land or conservation easements to SRT, usually qualifying them for significant income tax deductions.
Row of blue oaks
How Do I Get Started?
Contact us. Talk over your concerns, needs and ideas with our staff. Each conservation easement is developed on an individual basis, depending on the features of the property and the landowner’s wishes. SRT is committed to strategically selecting and protecting in perpetuity a web of connected lands in the Kings, Kaweah, Tule and Kern River watersheds. We generally look for conservation opportunities that:
- Contain significant open space, wildlife, rangeland or farmland attributes
- Occur along key river or stream corridors
- Face imminent threats
- Contribute to ongoing conservation through proximity to existing protected lands
- Provide models of limited development that is consistent with land conservation
What Does the Easement Process Involve?
In determining whether sale or donation of a conservation easement is suited for your needs, we strongly recommended that you secure your own expert advice – both legal and financial. The advisors you consult should be well versed in the advantages and disadvantages of conservation easements, as well as your personal circumstances in order to provide you with competent direction. Our staff is happy to recommend resources you may find helpful.
The easement process generally consists of the following steps:
- Touring the land by the landowner and SRT staff
- Producing a baseline inventory of resources to provide an evaluation of conservation values
- Developing easement terms by SRT staff and the landowner
- Conducting a real estate appraisal
- Generating a title report and (if needed) a hazardous waste report
- Establishing a stewardship endowment
- Recording the completed easement with county offices
Everyone Wins
Conservation easements are truly win-win agreements:
- Landowners win by conserving their land and gaining potential tax benefits, while retaining ownership of the property and keeping it in production
- Wildlife wins because habitat is conserved
- Future generations win by maintaining scenic rural landscapes