What is a Conservation Easement?
A conservation easement is a legal agreement that a land owner makes to restrict the type and amount of development that may take place on his or her property. The easement document is tailored to meet the needs and interests of the landowner.
With a conservation easement the landowner retains legal title to the property and determines the types of land uses to continue and those to restrict. As part of the arrangement, the landowner grants the holder of the conservation easement the right to periodically assess the condition of the property to ensure that it is maintained according to the terms of the legal agreement.
Another way to visualize a conservation easement is to think of owning land as holding a bundle of sticks. Each one of these sticks represents the landowner's right to do something with their property. The right to build a house, to extract minerals, to lease the property, pass it on to heirs, are all rights that the landowner has. A landowner may give up certain development rights, or sticks from the bundle, associated with their property through a document called a conservation easement.
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