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What is a Conservation Easement?
A conservation easement (sometimes also referred to as a conservation restriction) is a voluntary, legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values. It allows you to continue to own and use your land and to sell it or pass it on to heirs.
When you donate a conservation easement to a land trust, you give up some of the rights associated with the land. For example, you might give up the right to build additional structures, while retaining the right to grow crops. Future owners also will be bound by the easement's terms. The land trust is responsible for making sure the easement's terms are followed on a long-term basis.
Conservation easements offer great flexibility. An easement on property containing rare wildlife habitat might prohibit any development, for example, while one on a farm might allow continued farming and the building of additional agricultural structures. An easement may apply to just a portion of the property, and need not require public access
BENEFITS OF CONSERVATION EASEMENTS
A landowner sometimes sells a conservation easement, but usually easements are donated. If the donation benefits the public by permanently protecting important conservation resources and meets other federal tax code requirements it can qualify as a tax-deductible charitable donation. The amount of the donation is the difference between the land's value with the easement and its value without the easement. Placing an easement on your property may or may not result in property tax savings.
Perhaps most important, a conservation easement can be essential for passing land on to the next generation. By removing the land's development potential, the easement lowers its market value, which in turn lowers estate tax. Whether the easement is donated during life or by will, it can make a critical difference in the heirs' ability to keep the land intact.
What type of properties interest the Pemi-Baker Land Trust?
The Pemi-Baker Land Trust will evaluate each project on its own merits carefully examining each property, the values which would be conserved, and the public benefit of protecting the property.
In considering properties for conservation protection, the Pemi-Baker Land Trust seeks those which exhibit one or more of the following characteristics:
Water Quality and Quantity :
- Land overlying aquifers and aquifer recharge areas, especially if identified as prime
- Frontage on surface waters (rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds),
- Wetlands, flood plains, riparian zones, and other lands critical to water quality or recharge within the watershed
Forest and Agricultural Resources:
- Substantial acreage of productive forest and/or agricultural land,
- Historic forest and agricultural land,
- Unique forest species or communities,
- Land that will reduce the fragmentation of these forest and/or agricultural lands,
- Land that will preserve or promote forest or agricultural types or diversity
Wildlife Habitat and Plant Communities:
- Land containing ecologically significant or rare natural communities,
- Land that contributes to large tracts of undeveloped habitat and corridors for wildlife migration,
- Land that increases the diversity of contiguous natural communities
- Land that offers significant habitat for endangered, threatened or species of conservation concern
Community Value:
- Land with existing or potential trail corridors,
- Land that provides or contains scenic value,
- Land which preserves the region's rural and historical heritage,
- Land which provides public access for low impact recreational opportunities
The following may disqualify a land protection project from consideration by PBLT.
- Hazardous waste contamination or potential contamination
- Title problems, including lack of mortgage subordination
- Distance, location, or other site characteristics that prevent adequate monitoring
- Significant violations of federal, state, or local regulations or accepted best management practices
- Potential for another, more appropriate organization to provide protection
- A Landowner insists on provisions that RES believes would seriously diminish the property's conservation values or would make monitoring extremely difficult
- Conflict of interest
- Anticipated costs in time or money that do not have matching resources in the organization now or in the expected future
For more information, contact Charles Chandler (603)986-9814 or PemiBakerLandTrust@quincybog.org .